Sakura: Pink hair, green eyes
by Lackadaisical Love
Summary: Sakura was trained, hardened and sharpened to become a perfect shinobi whose true purpose was to serve. She grew up in a land where love, freedom and liberty wasn't allowed to exist. But she was blinded and deceived. Now, she was involved in a coup and desperately needed the help of her enemy village to help take down the dictator. And help came in the most surprising way. AU.
1. Chapter 1

**Sakura: Pink hair, green eyes.**

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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_**Author's Note:** This is an AU. There are some canon settings and elements but it is mostly an alternate universe. It is a slightly dark fic and is heavily packed with action. _

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**Chapter 1**

The air was cool and the sky was on the precipice of darkness. Dark clouds gathered and droplets of water started to fall. It was slowly starting to pour but she paid the weather no heed. She had far more important things to worry about; like the ninjas trailing somewhere close behind her.

She couldn't see them and she could barely hear them. They moved so swiftly, so silently, and with such devastating precision that set her on edge but one of them were being painfully loud in the otherwise silent forest. His chakra was not properly masked and there was no discretion whatsoever in his movements; as if he was demanding attention. Each landing on tree branches were marked with a loud thud and a strong chakra push to the feet to propel himself further ahead in order to keep up with her, unnecessarily giving himself away. Sakura scoffed at his blunt idiocy but thanks to him she was able to figure out their positions.

Sakura gathered more chakra into her feet and focused on her path, intent on losing her pursuers. She jumped down to the ground to gain a level of speed. Then, she created three clones and swiftly ordered them to move in separate paths while running in unconformable patterns to finally conduct a wild goose chase in order to thwart their plans.

But suddenly, the drizzling rain became heavier and heavier until it was almost impossible to see. The heavy downpour started a sudden reversal that balked her hopes. The branches were too slippery from the moss and rain it was almost impossible for her to run without tripping, even with chakra. The heavy thuds of rain droplets on the surface blocked her hearing but she knew her chasers were probably facing the same problem as her.

Reluctantly, she stopped and hid behind a big tree carefully masking her presence and began to prepare herself for the worse. She controlled her ragged breathing and made sure that she didn't miss any movement. Then, she heard a silent landing a few meters from her position. She detected no other presences so she concluded that the others had probably taken her bait and had followed her fake trails.

Her well trained ears tried to pick up more movements but she could only hear the rain slapping angrily against the ground. The ninja had his chakra completely suppressed so Sakura immediately deduced that whoever had managed to follow her wasn't the loud ninja. While she was relieved having to deal with lesser threats, it didn't escaped her that she was still far from danger. Frustrated, she tried to even her breathing and focus on her surroundings again. Trouble was near and she could feel it.

All of a sudden, a kunai flew straight into her face. She lunged to the side in the nick of time and immediately jumped behind another tree pulling out a kunai of her own to brandish it protectively in front of her. She tried to sense her enemy's chakra to pinpoint his positioning but he was silent and quick so it took her by surprise when he suddenly appeared in front of her.

Sakura tried to jab the kunai into him but he caught her wrist and twisted it so harshly she was forced to drop the weapon. Wincing, she counter-twisted her wrist so she was the one grabbing his wrist instead. Then she pulled him towards her forcing him to skid into her and she aimed a punch into his stomach. He deftly stopped the attack with his free hand engulfing her small fist in his larger one. With both their hands occupied, they were locked in that position. Sakura knew that soon it would be a battle of strength; one she wasn't keen on.

In the midst of struggling for control, she discovered that he was a dōjutsu user. The gleaming red swirl behind the mask he was sporting did not go unnoticed by her. Instinctually, she struggled to keep her eyes away from his burning orbs. There was no knowing what those burning red orbs can do to her but she might have an inkling of what they were capable of. She quickly gathered chakra into her palms, placed it onto his chest and released it just at the right moment effectively pushing the ninja away.

He staggered to a halt and visibly sized her up taking note of her seemingly brittle frame. This enraged Sakura for she was sure that he was silently underestimating her. She growled and casted hand signs before slamming her palm onto the ground. The enemy didn't tense or gave any signs of being wary of her jutsu like she had hoped for but coolly waited for the effect. She took the time to regard him carefully waiting for him to fall into her trap.

In the rain, she could only make out his tall figure since everything else was hidden beneath the black cloak he sported. However, despite the cloak, she could see that his stance was brimmed with confidence and feline-like elegance. The way he stood straight and the slight upward tilt of his head suggested that he came from a powerful upbringing. She wished to see his face that was hidden behind a white hawk mask but she was sure that only aristocratic features could justify his physical and aura.

When nothing seemed to happen, he moved towards her. Sakura smirked and saw his movements faltered when the ground suddenly started to melt and engulf his legs, like quicksand. He tried to get out but the ground was intent in swallowing him whole. Knowing that his teammates were around, Sakura used the time to escape but she wasn't able to go far because a clone suddenly blocked her path and engaged her in a taijutsu fight. She somewhat expected this so she steadily countered the clone's attacks.

The clone disappeared when she managed to land a punch on it and was replaced by its owner the moment she whirled around. She threw powerful blows but he easily parried them. It was infuriating how quick his movements were, ready to intercept her offenses before she even had the time to carry it out. Within seconds, it was his turn to flip the table over and Sakura found herself unable to dodge most of his attacks as he gained speed. She was forced to use chakra again and barely managed to throw him away. When she saw him tilting his head back with his hand on his mask where the mouth should be and his chest puffing with a spark of fire visible, she cursed. There wasn't enough time to jump out of the way due to their proximity so she immediately summoned a sturdy chakra barrier in front of her. She could've pulled up an earthen wall but there was no time to cast the hand seals and chakra was easier for her to command. A ball of fire crashed with her chakra barrier and it surprisingly trembled. The fireball was stronger than she had anticipated. She could feel the heat gathering behind the flimsy wall threatening to break it. Within seconds, her barrier was broken but before she could get burned, she managed to leap backwards and jump behind another tree, again.

Drawing laboured breaths, she tried to gather her wits about her. She was shocked with the sudden chaos she had found herself in. She knew she was going to be outnumbered soon and there was no way for her to get back in time to the nearest village's station that was a good half day travel away from her current position. Plus, she had to regroup with her teammates and find a way to get out of this sticky situation. Where was her teammates anyway? They were just behind her a while ago and suddenly they disappeared.

Her face darkened as she imagines the possibilities of her teammates abandoning her to the enemies to save their own asses. They had done that once before… twice actually. Of course it occurred to them that the enemy would more likely to chase after her due to her freakish pink hair that was easier to track in the dark Water Country's forest compared to their blend-able dark colours. It would be easier for them to sneak away. Curse them, Sakura thought as she pushed her bangs off of her face with a huff.

Suddenly, there were silent thuds amongst the slapping rain against ground. Sakura went fully rigid when she heard the arrival of the whole team. Judging from their movements and chakra signatures alone, Sakura was able to deduce that they were strong and skilful. One of them had proven it well enough. She peeked around the big tree bark and saw three dark figures closing in. It seemed like they had finally regrouped. Sakura cursed her bad luck and wondered if the gods were out to get her. She took another reckless peek and a kunai lodged itself just centimetres away from her face. Throwing colourful words towards the heavens, she quickly jumped away and was met with a flying punch to the head. Thrown from the impact, she felt herself flew and crashed onto the wet muddy ground painfully. Something warm trickled down her face but she ignored it trying to pay no attention to the pain that made her skull felt like it was being cracked open.

Shaking her head as if it could chase the blinding pain away, she immediately stood up and formed a hand seal as the three figures charged towards her.

"Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu!"

Three dragons formed from the rain water and charged towards each of her opponents with vehemence. As they give chase, the dragons grew in size as they absorbed the falling rain water into their bodies. The three unknown ninja swiftly evaded it while one used an earth ninjutsu to counter the attack. Sakura wanted to prolong the jutsu since it was proving to occupy her pursuer quite nicely but it was severely draining her chakra since it hadn't managed to hit any of them. They were quite nimble on their feet and were able to outmanoeuvre the dragons every time. The more she kept the jutsu the more chakra she needed so in order to preserve chakra, she quickly terminated the jutsu.

Before they have the time to recover, Sakura charged in with two of her clones engaging each of them into a fight, each armed with chakra scalpels. It wasn't fast but it took a little bit of time for her clones to be defeated and by then, Sakura had found herself on her butt when the nin she first fought with swept her feet off the ground. She hastily got up and diverted them with more clones. She knew those attempts were feeble but she was too low on chakra even before she had encountered this group of dangerous shinobi. If she wasn't that drained of energy, she wouldn't have that much trouble escaping them (she knew of course she couldn't defeat all three of them on her own but she could at least flee safely).

Again, she saw her clones disappeared with one of them being dispelled by a rough chakra ball-like jutsu through the heart. When a kick tried to land itself on her chest, she caught the foot but was unable to block the other one as it swung into her with a swift force that knocked her breath out. She struggled to her feet, dazed, only to be knocked down once again with a quick blow into her midsection. Doubling over in pain, she failed to notice the blade of a sword settling on the back of her neck.

"Where are the others, kunoichi?" A deep velvety voice asked.

The pink haired-nin barely heard it over the splashing of the rain and the thunderous ringing in her head. She only groaned painfully. Feeling the blade that was finally drawing blood, she stilled and tried to steady her irregular breathing.

"Where are your teammates?" The same voice asked again.

"I don't know."

She didn't hear him but she was sure the owner of that damned voice had snorted. She screamed when a sudden swipe of the blade cut deeply through the flesh of the left side of her body.

"Where are they?"

"I told you, I don't know," Sakura said through gritted teeth.

She gasped when a foot collided with the side of her head. The renewed feeling of having her skull cracked open made her wished that the enemy had at least the decency to kick somewhere that wouldn't affect her judgement and orientation. She clutched her hands on her head in an attempt to lessen the pain. Not being able to think correctly, she almost forgot that she had the ability to make the pain go away.

"Ne, don't you think it'll be useless if she's knocked out?" She heard one of them said in a thick Fire country's accent; his voice almost boyish but had a roughish quality to it and was very loud.

It was hard to think straight from the heavy pounding in her head. She tried to heal her head without the others noticing and tried to appear like she was just shielding away from more assault.

"Not that she is to begin with."

Sakura would've bristled aggressively from the comment but she was too occupied with her discreet healing. After a brief moment, her bleary vision finally cleared. The pounding stopped but left an uncomfortable numbness in her head. Worried that she might alert them of her regained senses, she kept kneeled over on the earth pretending like she was still in deep pain. The move was cowardly but it was sensible. She tried to formulate a plan to get out safely, all the while keeping tabs of the movements she could get from her limited peripheral vision.

"Come on, man. She doesn't know. Let's just scout the area or something. Maybe they're around."

She didn't know who these people were and what they wanted from her. It was highly unlikely that they were rogue-nin because of the uniform they wore. Her disorientation failed her ability to recognize the obvious Fire Country's shinobi attire – the masks screamed Konoha even when it was designed to be inconspicuous.

"Negative. They split up earlier and I lost track of them just a while ago," A different monotonous voice said with no accent at all.

So they did abandoned me, she thought sullenly.

"What is your affiliation, missing-nin?" The deep voice from earlier asked again, it too was devoid of any accents and emotions.

What, missing-nin? She wasn't a missing-nin. Strangely though, Sakura found herself unable to response.

"Answer me, kunoichi," he demanded.

When he leaned in to look at her forehead, Sakura took the chance to charge. She swept his legs off the ground and used the small moment of confusion to use a chakra enhanced punch on his nearby teammate. When he flew from the impact, she turned to attack the third member. He was able to dodge her roundhouse kick and replied with one of his own. Sakura blocked that kick and dodged an attack from behind. In a flash, she found herself surrounded by the trio. Going by instinct, she blocked and parried all the punches and kicks sent her way but the sequence was abruptly stopped when a sword suddenly pierced through her shoulder. She screamed and was forced to kneel by the pressure of the straight sword.

He then grabbed her head roughly and took a look at her forehead protector.

"Kiri," he affirmed.

"Missing-nin?"

"…no." The male's voice didn't sound so happy with his finding.

"Crap!"

He pulled his sword out roughly and Sakura grabbed her shoulder with a pained cry. She heard the loud one cursed profusely. Sakura had no idea why they were reacting so adversely to this little discovery. Did they really think she was a missing-nin? Were they hunting for one then? However, she was in so much pain she had no time to wonder about their intentions.

"Damn it, what do we do now?" The loud one panicked.

Sakura chanced a glance upwards towards him but before she could properly take note of his appearance, the same foot connected with the side of her face once again, making her vision filled with stars. The kick was hard and precise making her rolled over again in the muddy ground. She was drenched in cold rain and blood, and the hammering pain inflicted repeatedly to her head was beginning to make her see black spots and hear even more confusing ringing in her bleeding ear. At this rate, a serious concussion and blood loss would be her cause of death and if she was miraculously saved, she would most probably suffer from retardation from the force and trauma her brain was receiving. She was surprised that even her neck was still intact.

"What did you do that for?!" The loud-nin wailed, suddenly in disagreement with hurting her, which she reckoned they had done a good job thus far.

"Enough," the velvety voice commanded stopping his teammate from further attacking her.

She wasn't feeling so good. If they continued, she would seriously die. She was weak from the running and assault, and her chakra was almost depleted due to her previous mission before their encounter. Not caring anymore about discretion, she openly raised one of her hand to her head and channeled medical chakra into it. She didn't see the how the ninja around her exchanged wary looks. While she healed herself, she heard the three of them argued but it slipped past her hearing. Besides, it was silent and hushed so she doubted she could hear it even if she was focused. She was far too concentrated on the relief that she didn't hear one of them leaving.

"Our business is done here. By the rules of the Armistice, we are to disengage and prevent further hostilities."

Armistice? Does that mean they're… damn… her chakra was extremely low. It was beginning to flicker dangerously so she automatically stopped, the angry throbbing reminding her of the unfinished job. Sakura tried to push herself up but she was too weak. She cursed aloud.

"Sorry," the loud-nin apologized, taking her off guard.

"You're from Konoha, aren't you?" Sakura rasped out a question without looking up.

They were notorious for being big softies and she knew that no one with black uniforms complete with masks would bother with repentance or even clemency. She was expecting her body to flop lifelessly to the ground and her head rolling some distance away for quite some time now since their encounter. Of course she was grateful that her head was still intact. It's just doesn't fit the ruthless black ops profile to be so… lenient for the kinds of her.

They didn't answer, only looked down at her stiffly.

"Why ambushed us?" Sakura asked, trying to look up with difficulty remembering how this had started.

Her vision was hazy and the pelting rain was certainly of no help but her sight fell on two tall figures; wearing complete ANBU gears which displayed no form of identification whatsoever. Of course, their ANBU attire consisting of black clothing, a grey flak jacket, metal arm guards and gloves, and a signature spiral tattoo on their shoulders would be hidden underneath the black cloak because the masks was so obvious. White and animalistic designs. They belonged to Konoha. The accent – that the loud one shouldn't have spoken with – illustrated Konoha. The mention of the Armistice, Sakura snorted silently, proved Konoha.

"None of your business."

"I'm injured, courtesy of you, and it's not my business? Right," Sakura snapped back though her catty reply sounded more tired and beaten, much to her chagrin.

Despite unable to get an answer, Sakura could make a few guess. They were looking for nukenins, perhaps one from Kiri considering their geography and had intercepted her team in a route popular to missing-nin; thick and densely populated by trees. Sakura looked down and saw black striped clothes that wasn't civilian enough to signal that she was just a normal person but also wasn't a uniform to signify a shinobi of a hidden village. It was understandable how they'd reach the conclusion that she was a missing-nin. Her team as a whole had deliberately dressed like this for their mission before this encounter. There were probably other reasons for the Konoha ANBU but this seemed more likely.

Usually, ANBU operatives would eliminate anyone that could potentially reveal their existence during a certain place and time. That was a huge threat to them. Sakura wondered why they didn't kill her, not that she was complaining or anything. But it was just a strange occurrence and again, she's not complaining. As the two Konoha ANBU discussed something under their breath, Sakura's mind analysed the situation.

Now, they mentioned the armistice. Konoha and Kiri were in an armistice; they had been for a long time. However, in recent years there had been rumours that the armistice was about to end. Through war or peace, nobody knew. Both of the countries had made little effort to solve the conflict. Well, Konoha certainly did spent a considerable amount of effort but Kiri had turned a blind eye so far towards their diplomatic advances.

Nevertheless, Konoha was lenient towards Kiri in order to appeal their plan of peace; which was why Sakura could sense the reluctant disappearance of killing intent from the Leaf shinobi before her. They were really committed to this peace efforts, she could tell. However, that still didn't explain why they would let her go alive just like that.

She forced her body up and was slowly standing, albeit with a lot of trouble. This time though, no one was kicking her down.

"So you're letting me go, just like this?"

The loud ninja – she recognized him from before, he was a bit bulkier than his leaner comrade –looked to his teammate for an answer. When he received none, he nodded.

The rain continued to pummel relentlessly on them and the cold was starting to creep into her bones. Despite the need to stay awake, she felt herself slipping away. With her eyes still on them, just in case, she dragged herself to the nearest tree and threw her back against it. Then she threw her arm with the uninjured shoulder to her sliced up side, putting pressure on it in an attempt to numb the pain, all the while watching the two ANBU carefully through swollen half lidded eyes.

"We're not medic-nins, so I'm afraid we have to leave you like this," the loud one, despite his now, quieter and more reserved tone, told her far too apologetically for an ANBU. She didn't reply.

"We'll take our leave," he said and turned around. His teammate was already gone by time he took a step towards a specific direction.

"See you around," Sakura mumbled, closing her eyes shut.

Sakura didn't see it but he turned around and grinned beneath his mask before giving her a small salute and disappearing into the night.

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**_Author's Note:_**

_Monkeys are jumping on Lackadaisical Love's keyboard..._

_1) I've actually posted this story some time ago but I was extremely unsatisfied with the plot and characters so I had to redo it.__ If you've read this story before then, my apologies! However, you will see noticeable changes that I've made. It will start with a bit - or __maybe a lot - of action so be patient. Romance will build up along the way. _

_2) English is not my mother tongue but I think I'm pretty fluent and I have grammar issues. I also sometimes, have no idea how to use some English words correctly so if there's sentences that sounds awkward and just wrong, sorry! __I wrote this without the help of a beta reader so if you spot any mistakes do tell me. I don't mind anonymous reviewers but when it comes to constructive criticism, I'd much appreciate it if you post them with an ID so that I can reply to you if needed or if you want me too. But if you don't want to I won't stop you. Still, don't hesitate to drop a review or anything. I like reading them!_

_3) Oh, and err, sorry if the fighting scene is too long. Got carried away. hehe. And if you think, Sakura is weak here, yes. Do think so. __But she's not THAT weak. _I just want her a little bit flawed. Not because I hate her (that's silly, this is a SasuSaku, I mean come on) but because I love her and I enjoy the fighting spirit in her. And we all know that fighting spirits only comes when you've kissed the floor once or twice or several more times.

_4) __Red eyes, loud guy, monotonous voiced guy. Bet you can't guess who they are._

_Anyway, do tell me what you think of this story. _

_I hope you enjoyed it. _

_Have a nice day!_


	2. Chapter 2

**Sakura: Pink hair, green eyes.**

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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**Chapter 2**

After an extremely long week of rehabilitation, the pink haired kunoichi found herself in the Mizukage's office.

"Sakura reporting, Mizukage-sama," Sakura said as she bowed deeply in respect.

Despite his height, soft demeanour and childlike appearance, Yagura gave an air of authority and spoke with volumes that demanded attention. He has messy, light-grey hair, pink pupil-less eyes and what seemed to be a stitch-like scar running from under his left eye all the way down his cheek. His face was young like that of a child but the serious expression he constantly wore and the hardened glaze in his eyes seemed to age him a hundred year. He was always wearing his ready-to-battle attire underneath his Kage regalia. His prized weapon; a staff-like pole with uneven sized hooks and a green flower on the larger end, was propped carefully on a wall close to his office table. He was constantly guarded by ANBU even though he barely needed them for he was more than creditable with his power, strength and skill with the additional tailed beast to boot. A Kage like him would take a village of ANBU to kill, she reckoned.

Currently, he wore upon his face a dissatisfied expression that caused Sakura distress. It never suited her well to fail her Mizukage, mostly because of the degree of terror he could inflict within her with just a cursory glance. She often found herself torn in regards of the Mizukage. There were times when she respected him and went beyond morals to obey him but there were also times when she doubted his control and non-existing affection towards the village and its residents. As of lately, her growing concern of his tyranny was taking over her mind and she couldn't help but wonder if her loyalty towards this physically child-like dictator was worth it.

Truth to be told, the Fourth Mizukage was one of the reasons that gave her life a purpose. He never does anything for her but his nods of approval at every successful mission was more than enough to make her swell with pride and push her on for another day. She never had a parent or a true sensei so only the Mizukage – whom she was taught to idolize – had become a sort of a hero figure to her despite her uncontrolled fear towards the man. And now, she was scared, worried and highly disappointed with herself even when she knew she had done nothing wrong. His calculating eyes travelled across her stiff recovering figure and finally landed on her face. She wasn't comfortable looking into his unpropitious pink orbs so to be formal and respectful; she stared at a spot just above his head.

"Proceed," his smooth, not child-like, voice commanded.

Sakura nodded and recounted her team's at first successful reconnaissance mission. She explained how the mission went smoothly despite a sudden encounter at the end of the mission with a powerful missing-nin but after defeating him, they were able to proceed home. However, things went further downhill as she described their encounter with a strong group of Konoha ANBU who had mistaken them for a group of missing-nins that they had been hunting. She explained how her team resorted to fleeing but ending up fighting them after she was separated.

Sakura paused. She remembered how easily and unpleasant it had been when she was introduced to the ground. It humiliated her how she was unable to fend off those shinobi. She knew she had already written a detailed report about the fight so she just briefly described it and the little to none information she had gathered from them. She was sure her teammates had reported the part where they and the backup team had found her knocked out cold later since they went to the Mizukage before her so she left it unsaid. While the mission wasn't actually a total failure, it had resulted to a confrontation of shinobi between the two countries which was not supposed to happen according to the treaty.

Yagura nodded but kept silent for a while after she finished reporting. He folded his hands in front of him and looked deep in thought.

"Konoha ANBU you say?"

"Without a doubt, Mizukage-sama," Sakura assured.

"And they didn't kill you because they claimed to respect the treaty?"

Noticing his prodding stare on her, she replied, "Yes. I suspect they know that if they killed me but let my teammates escaped unscathed, it will look as if it was a form of threat from them to our village."

Sakura wondered if her explanation sounded a tad bit conceited and foolish on her part, as if to say that she was so important that her casualty would lead the two villages to war. The thought was so ridiculous, Sakura inwardly laughed and promptly knocked her head against an imaginary wall. If she died, no one would care. However, it was a valid reason. According to the treaty, any known death caused by the opposing village would break the armistice and things can easily escalate into a full blown war from there on. They could've easily killed Sakura but her escaped teammates would've known her cause of death and reported it. And then their fate would rest in Yagura's hand. Judging from Konoha's 'let's-play-safe' policy, it was no doubt that they were trying to avoid such thing from happening. Peace was a huge deal for that village and to be frank, Yagura was not concerned about any of it. If anything, Yagura wanted more violence, land and power.

"There has been considerably lesser contact with Konoha," Sakura heard him say quietly.

She knew of course that by 'contact' he really meant casualties caused by either side to their shinobi. This could be due to the constant peace efforts initiated by the Hidden Leaf Village.

"They are persistent but do not lower your guard," he said again.

Sakura furrowed her eyebrows. Was he talking to himself? It didn't seem like a type of thing he would typically say to her or any of his shinobi for that matter. He enforced his thoughts through his regime. Obey and be effective. That was his modus operandi drilled into his shinobi. If you die then it was for his sake, or because you were incompetent. Pick whichever consolation you like.

"We must not give face to Konoha. They do not deserve leniency."

He was definitely talking to himself since his eyes were now focused on his table. Sakura stared at the wall slightly above his head but she could still clearly see him. He looked contemplative but the stoic image remain attached to his face. Then, his eyebrows furrowed and anger washed his face in a matter of seconds. Sakura wanted to recoil and flee because that face usually meant punishment. She only knew because of past experiences. But right now she didn't know what she had done wrong. She completed her original mission, she betrayed no information, and no one had died. There was no reason to punish her. Perhaps he wanted someone to die? And he was angry because she wasn't able to inflict death on their enemy? But it was a B-ranked mission! No blood was supposed to be spilled! Upon that thought, Sakura winced. She was a Kiri shinobi and no matter what rank the mission is, blood spill was to be expected.

"Kunoichi," his baritone voice called out. Sakura didn't flinch but something unpleasant dropped into her stomach as his deceptively calm voice commanded her attention.

"Are you effective?"

It was that question again. He asks her – and many others who serves under him – this one particular question and she had never heard anyone answer negatively.

"Yes, Mizukage-sama."

"Is your team effective?"

"We are effective," Sakura tried to assure him, despite knowing that her Jounin team was less cooperative than her own ANBU team, who was far more mature and superior compared to her team since childhood.

"You are lying."

Sakura did not react. She was unable to. But he was Yagura, the fourth Mizukage of Kirigakure. And nothing escapes him.

"If they did not abandoned you, then you would have stood a chance against the Konoha ANBU," Yagura said in a dark voice.

Sakura did not know how he knew but he knew. Sakura's team was hardly effective and had managed to get far only because of how strong they were. If they weren't able to hold on for themselves, they would've been ten times dead and waiting for Yagura in hell. The Mizukage must've seen through their reports (or tortured one of the two) to get the information of how she was carelessly abandoned, ruining the chances for… for what exactly? Yagura wanted death, and no one had died. He was displeased but it was irrelevant. His anger was irrelevant considering the team's mission. The encounter was just a roadblock on the way home. Nothing was exposed and no one was harmed. And if anyone was at a disadvantage it would be the Konoha operatives. Their obscured operation there was revealed by mistake. So why was he angry?

"It was not their fault," Sakura couldn't understand why she was even defending her teammates and was about to kill herself when she admitted, "I was incapable."

Yagura's eyes narrowed but he leaned back into his chair.

"Incapable?"

Sakura nodded.

"Then why are you even a hunter-nin?"

She was sincerely lost. The mission, her reconnaissance mission, had nothing to do with whatever it was he was furious at and it certainly had nothing to do with her status as a hunter-nin albeit admittedly, it does lower her credit. So Sakura did what was safe; she bowed down and apologized.

"You are a hunter-nin because I chose you," Yagura said as he stood up and went around his desk.

Sakura resisted the urge to betray her confusion. With Yagura, the safest expression to adopt is none at all. He was suddenly in front of her, slightly shorter with the tip of his head reaching her chin but he was still intimidating and petrifying.

"You are here because you are proficient," he stared straight into her eyes, "And I do not choose the weak and they do not fail me. Your statement is proving me wrong."

Blood rushed from her face and her body snapped still. She resisted her fist from clenching but was unable to avoid her legs feeling weakened from pure fear. He moved behind her and then she saw nothing. She didn't dare to turn so she just stood there waiting. Her ninja senses wreaked havoc inside of her mind. The back of her neck prickled uncomfortably, her spine was straightened and stiffened, and her muscles tensed. It seemed like the time was passing so slowly and the air was painfully pressuring her. Her lips were dry and her jaw strained from clenching too hard.

"I do not like to be wrong, kunoichi."

"I'm sorry," Sakura almost whimpered.

She was so, so confused but at the moment, she cared very little about her inability to understand anything. The only thing she knew was to mentally prepare herself for the torture and something at the back of her mind prayed very hard that it will pass by quickly. She knew that the only way to get out of it was to let him do it and endure. A shinobi must endure, she thought to herself repeating the words that tyrant had said to her once when he had tortured her after her first failed ANBU mission.

Fortunately for her, after a very long time, some god was feeling rather compassionate towards her at that moment and decided to calm the tyrant. He was back in his seat, his arms resting on the sides of his regal chair. He suddenly looked calm and unaffected by his anger just like he was now but the air was still bearing down on her heavily.

"Regardless of the little interference, your mission is completed," he said as if that little anger episode plus all the confusion it brought never happened.

Sakura nodded, and wondered how badly shaken she was for the simple nod to cause her a headache.

"Despite this little armistice, I still expect my shinobi to stay sharp and operational. The attitudes your comrades displayed during the mission was inapt. I will have a word with them."

Having a word meant punishment and Sakura couldn't help but feel bad for them despite their constant jackass attitude towards her.

"Resume your duty with Team 4 as a hunter-nin," he then ordered her.

"Yes, Mizukage-sama."

He regarded her carefully and he seemed to be thinking of something.

"Will you fail me?" He asked.

This was not insecurity. This was not fear of insubordination. He was far too sure of himself and knew he was strong and powerful to crush any threat to his throne build from fear, blood and bones. This was just him testing her worth and Sakura knew that he would no longer have it for long.

"I will not fail you, Mizukage-sama." Sakura promised. A lie.

His gaze sharpened and the air precipitously felt dark and thick when he drawled the ominous claim,

"Your word… or your life."

* * *

Sakura had to admit that her motherland was a dull and miserable place.

Kirigakure literally meant the "Village Hidden by Mist", infamously known as the "Village of the Bloody Mist". Befitting its name, the village was surrounded by a thick mist, with several mountains in the background, making it difficult to find.

Why bloody, one might ask.

During the early reign of the Fourth Mizukage, Kirigakure began using a new graduation ritual for their academy: death matches for students who wish to move on into the ranks of ninja hence, the infamous nickname, "Village of the Bloody Mist". Students who did exceptionally well during the graduation became prime candidates for the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, a group of ninja skilled with bladed weapons while others merely became disposable tools for the mortiferous country. The ritual was still being practiced despite the Zabuza Graduation incident (a boy eliminating the entire graduation class despite him yet to be enrolled in the academy) several decades ago and a certain pink haired-nin had successfully passed hers just eight years ago.

She imagined an outsider would shudder and gasp in terror upon hearing the story of her first kill at the tender age of ten but children do not stay young in this savage country. She remembered how she had shakily pulled the kunai out of her thigh which her fellow classmate had easily stabbed her with and sliced the throat of the boy with that very same bloodied weapon. When she realized what she had done, she stepped back into the arm of her sensei who smiled approvingly at her and tied her new well-deserved forehead protector on her pink head. It marked the beginning of her bloodied life.

Not many would've chosen this path given the type of country they were living in but it was one of the only professions they knew. The magnitude of wars had affected the country's overall system; and the Land of Mist had participated in many, many vicious wars. After the Third World Shinobi War, Kirigakure was involved in many wars of attritions with smaller nations over land rights and domination. Naturally, this led the country to focus its wellbeing into its military growth more than anything else providing ample chances for anyone to join the shinobi operatives but being the country that expected only sharp kunai from the drawer, they created a system that would eliminate fumbling weaklings amongst their ranks. Not many can doubt the strength that came from this country. They were trained, hardened and sharpened to become perfect shinobi whose true purpose was to serve. It was simply ironic how many missing-nins also originated from this country as well.

Sakura grew up in an orphanage and she knew nothing about her family. She didn't even know her last name but she was told by her caretaker that she was given the name Sakura because of her strange pink hair. Cliché, cliché. Like everyone else, she was told that her parents died in the wars. Everyone in the orphanage was enlisted to the academy regardless of their status. Even those with no natural ninja talent or ninja background were forced into the academy. None ended up fine, except maybe Sakura herself but even then she had struggled. After she graduated, she started to live in her own place when she started to work and able to pay from the meagre D-rank missions she received.

She was placed in a team and was constantly with different sensei as more Jounin and Chuunin were deployed into the wars. Because the country suffered lack of forces, Genin and academy students were sometimes thrown into the warfare. Academy students and Genin who made out alive were promoted. Such was the case for Sakura and her team. They managed to become Chuunin because they had miraculously survived a war with a smaller shinobi nation near the country. That was six years ago and barely two years ago she was promoted to Jounin followed by her secretive recruitment into ANBU sometime later.

Now at 18, she was doing quite well with her career considering how many shinobi was expected to expire after 5 years of service. She was a combative medic-nin and had found her niche with chakra. It had took her quite a long time to discover her talent with medical ninjutsu but she had known that she was gifted with chakra the very first time she had managed to create a perfect clone in her first try while it took weeks and months for her other classmates. She was also intelligent so she used that to make up for her non-existent talent in ninjutsu during her preteen years. Once she had found her place in the medical field, she began to grow from there on getting help mainly from scrolls and books. Kiri ninja weren't big fans of mentoring and rarely accepted disciples, especially people like her who they considered freakish. Some people had thought that her pink hair were traits of a bloodline limit so they stayed clear of her. Kirigakure weren't big fans of bloodline limits after all. Those people were dissed and slaughtered like pigs.

She briefly wondered about how similar she was with Yagura in terms of appearance. Sakura had pink hair and he had pink eyes. Sakura had noticed his eyes first when she saw him for the first time during her Chuunin inauguration. Unlike everyone, he wasn't scared of his colours and had stood tall and mighty for what a barely 5 feet tall man can. While people were afraid of her and had pushed her aside but for Yagura they bowed so deep their noses touch the ground. At that time, Sakura was so impressed by him because he wasn't deterred by his physical abnormalities and had forced respect and fear from the people so easily it was crime (and it really was crime). Maybe that was why she had so easily admired and idolized him. Now though, she wasn't so sure anymore.

She remembered how her teammates had made quite a fuss when they were first assigned in a team with her. They called her a freak and treated her like dirt. During trainings, they beat her up and left her alone once she was completely unable to move. Even when she had cried and told them that she was normal and was none of those disgusting things they told her, they still punished her for her supposed faults. She later learnt that the only way to stop them from hurting her was to be stronger herself. And stronger she became.

As Sakura looked across the misty view of the village seeing only tall cylindrical buildings with greenery on its rooftop and mosses on the walls, she couldn't help but sigh disappointedly at the thought of her teammates. She bore no disdain in being in a team with them and did not hold it against them for the pain they put her through back then but sometimes, she thought that she would be better off without them. They were strong, skilful and efficient, but they lacked teamwork. Her teammates were lone wolves and was severely detached. It was in their nature. If someone took a look at their action plans, they would recognize a pattern where the team would more split and conquer rather than work together in mobilization. Even if they had to work together, it was obvious which would most likely to work more with who. She never understood why her teammates like to exclude her, even when she had proven herself better than them, but she didn't mind it anyway. They were never good company. And as long as they're able to complete their missions, Sakura was willing to compromise.

Shaking her head, she pulled herself away from the balcony, leaving the late misty afternoon's view. Going back into her small apartment, she went straight into the kitchen and made herself some green tea. With a steaming hot cup, she went to her bedroom and returned to her study corner where a large shelf of books and scrolls supported itself on the wall near a fairly big messy table and chair. She sat on the beaten office chair and pulled herself closer to the table, picking up a book and began staring unseeingly at the words.

Memories of swirling red eyes suddenly assaulted her mind. The patterns were centrifugally aligned along his pupils and the lines spread and converged along the edges of the irises resulting in three intersecting ellipses that resemble an atom model. Frowning, she settled the book down and propped her hands up on the desk in a thoughtful manner. Although she was slow to recognize it she knew the red orbs were a bloodline limit that was highly spoken of in the shinobi world, apart from within the Kirigakure walls of course.

She had taken note of his eyes the first time she saw it and the image seemed to burn at the back of her mind. It was so intricate and beautiful but so, so dangerous she was simply amazed by it but only now of course, after being far away from danger and imminent death. It was a variant of the famous eye power but she knew it was called the Sharingan, one of the Three Great Dōjutsu. It was silly and stupid to not be aware of such existing power and she was correct in her assumptions to carefully avoid looking straight into it during her battle with the shinobi whom she assumed was a clansman of the renowned Uchiha clan.

Although it did little performance that time but she was willing to bet that if she pushed enough buttons, she wouldn't be sitting in her bedroom contemplating life as she was now. She had encountered an Uchiha once when she was a mere Genin and had suffered great repercussions. However back then, she remembered no elaborated details of the eyes, except that they were red.

As she took another sip of her tea, she wondered if they would come across each other again someday. She knew the chances were highly unlikely, since she doesn't know who he is and if he or she would live long enough and have the fate – fortunate or not – to cross paths again. Sakura was so ashamed of her performance in the last mission she could only think about her redemption through another encounter. She knew she could prove herself a formidable opponent, not the weakling they saw that cold rainy night although admittedly she thought she could've put up quite a good fight had she been in her best form.

She turned her head and her eyes landed on a mask lying idly on the bed. It had thin slits for eye-holes, a wavy design in place of the mouth and the village symbol on the forehead. Everyone who saw this mask knew that death had sent his men to get them. She was wearing parts of the uniform; the turtle-necked undershirt with her pyjama black shorts while her vest and pants were in the closet. She had been in the black ops for over a year now and she thought it was quite nice. It may sound quite crazy and coldblooded to admit that she liked being a hunter-nin but her skills with medical ninjutsu was quite valuable in that arena. ANBU were handpicked by the Mizukage and that showed just how excelled she was to be noticed by a man of his calibre.

For Sakura, the feeling of importance that comes with joining ANBU had engulfed her and she had revelled in it. She knew the Mizukage depended on her and had assigned the S-ranked missions only because he knew of her capabilities. And that feeling of being needed for her skills and talent had made her feel good.

Sakura saw herself as pitiful. Fate had discarded her at such an early age. She never knew her parents and even though it was the case for many others, she was still one of the few that didn't know anything about her roots. They told her that her parents had died in the wars but she never found any records of them. Kind of hard to when you don't even have a last name. If that was hard, she then had to live with deformities.

She moved.

She found herself standing in front of her mirror, looking straight at a young woman with terribly large green eyes, atrocious pink hair and a forehead the size of the ocean. Her skin was quite nice she supposed and her lips and nose were fine but that didn't compensate for anything. She looked at herself unsatisfied. It causes her great annoyance to be taken slightly just because of her weak appearance. She easily stuck out like a sore thumb in the sea of generic dark shinobi colours and her eyes were too expressive it often caught her into trouble. Sakura wasn't vain but she was vain enough to be ashamed of her unnaturally wide forehead and her off-putting colours. She was not curvaceous and she was rather petite and despite her well-toned limbs, she still looked small which was why many had taken her lightly when they met in battles. She simply looked gaunt and breakable and yet here she was, holding the death's face in her hand.

Sakura realized that the reason she had gotten this far was because of her ability in the medical field and her talent with chakra. She was also, with little modesty, incredibly smart. She had learnt by herself the skills of medical ninja and had profound knowledge in almost everything she deemed necessary. Sakura even incorporated the skills that the Fifth Hokage was famous for into her skillset. Various books and scrolls related to the legendary kunoichi rested on her shelves and she had studied them all.

She was secretly and greatly inspired by Konoha's Fifth Hokage for her abilities and strength. This was her well-kept secret. It would not befit a Kiri shinobi to look up to someone like her, especially since she was the enemy but she vowed to one day see her. Sakura would be even more thrilled if she could meet her in a battle. She knew it would be a long journey but she was prepared for it. She knew her name travelled within the ranks from time to time due to her brilliance in self-learning and thanked her wonderful hardworking nature for that. It was all she had and it had taken her this far.

Nodding to herself, she placed the mask back on her bed and looked at the clock. It was half past six, 30 more minutes before her evening workout routine. She quickly cleaned the room and got ready. After her workout, she would get a simple dinner, pack her travel bag, and study about chakra and go to sleep. She has a mission tomorrow and it wouldn't be good if she was tired.

* * *

**_Author's note:_**

_Lackadaisical Love is abusing her keyboard..._

_1) I really like Yagura. He looks so cute! But not in this story though. In this story, I made Yagura more harsher than he should be and he's basically the worst thing that could happen to anybody in Kirigakure, or anywhere else. In the manga or anime, he's more shy, polite, and reserved. But here I need him to be more controlling, manipulative and a little bit (as in a lot) mean. And his one-sided conversation means something. hint hint. This is an important thing in this story._

_2) Okay so I mentioned that Sakura has deformities. She doesn't really, but it's just soooo Sakura to consider her hair and forehead as such since it has impacted her so much in the canon-verse. There's a reason why she has incredible low self-esteem in her appearance even though it contrasts with her confidence in her abilities. I'll explore more of her complex in this story. Wait. I think I pretty much told you guys why already. Hm..._

_3) Okay, so am I making her too perfect for having her reach ANBU early? And that meanie Yagura seem to find her a good choice for ANBU? I feel like in the manga, the esteemed Kishi-san is downplaying Sakura's role. People, open your eyes. See what she can do: summon giant slug, diamond-in-the-wide-forehead no jutsu, heal countless ninja + Shikamaru (thank god!) and loads more! But obviously she's too emotional and you can see that she let others steal her spotlight. So I kindawannamakeherakickasscharacter in this story just so that you lot know that she's amazing. But of course, FLAWS SHE MUST HAVE. _

_4) It's sad if I strip away Sakura's fighting style from the manga since that's what make Sakura, Sakura. So I decided to give her a reason why and how she ended up with it anyway here. But I have to add up some other water country's related jutsu as well. Plus, I had to take away her last name. Future chapters told me it's kinda important._

_5) I saw a black cat on my balcony and it's not mine. Is that a sign?_

_Do leave me a review or a message. I like hearing from you guys._

_Until next time. _

_:)_


	3. Chapter 3

**Sakura: Pink hair, green eyes.**

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

* * *

**_Author's Note:_**_ I blushed real hard when I read all of your kind reviews. Yes. Keep them coming. Please. Okay, no more stalling. Here's more action for you guys!_

* * *

**Chapter 3**

Sakura threw a chakra laden punch towards the missing-nin and he did a mistake by catching it with his bare hand. The very second his hand received her fist and clenched around it, he screamed. Sakura didn't pay attention to the sickening crunch of shattered fingers and bones. Instead, she pulled her fist away and pushed him by his chest causing the tortured man to backtrack against a large tree just behind him. When his back met the rough tree bark, she quickly drew chakra and let it enter his chest cavity. She urged it to turn into a corporeal bladed form and it obeyed, turning and churning until it completely shredded his lungs. His eyes widened horrifyingly as he sputtered blood onto her mask. When Sakura released his chest, he promptly slid downwards to the base of the tree and his head fell forward, signalling his death.

She heard a silent gasp behind her and turned, seeing a young boy materializing out of nowhere. He must've been hiding himself with a genjutsu and Sakura was mildly impressed by how she was unable to detect him. She expected him to lunge at her but instead he ran and dropped to the side of the dead body. Sakura observed him silently as he wailed. He was a Genin, probably 12 years old by the looks of his chubby face. The dead person was his brother based on the information she was given when she was assigned to track them down. They apparently ran away after stealing a number of important scrolls from the restricted library to trade them off. Sakura was sent to retrieve the scrolls and eliminate the traitors.

He sobbed wetly and shakily stood up. She thought he was ready to fight but instead he looked at her with a wet face and begging eyes. Something in her heart tugged uncomfortably. Sakura knew she couldn't spare anyone and she knew she couldn't trust her emotional judgement. So before the voice in her mind protested, she pulled out the standard issue sword strapped to her back and severed his head clean without delay watching it roll away as the body dropped lifelessly to the ground gushing blood ceaselessly. Sakura turned her head away from the sight below her and sighed.

The pink-haired hunter-nin was barely bothered by the blood but that doesn't mean she enjoyed the bloody mess. Silently, she created a hand seal. When she placed her hand familiarly on the ground, it melted and the bodies sank into it. Sakura made sure they went deep enough and allowed her chakra to dissolve the corpses before she ended the jutsu. It was crucial to not leave behind any indications of murder since it could easily trace back to her and her association. Especially if someone plan to come back with vengeance though Sakura was sure that for these two, no one would. The ground hardened and looked as if it wasn't a grave of two unfortunate brothers. She quickly prayed for them and hope that they have a better chance in the afterlife.

Sakura rarely prayed for her enemies and only ever did so when she was on solo missions. If she had been with her teams, she wouldn't have dared to display such deed. It wasn't encouraged. In fact, it was forbidden to display any compassion or anything of equal qualities towards their targets, dead or not. It was against their code of conduct and to have conflicting emotions during hunting would only jeopardize their missions.

Hence the reason why she only allows herself the weakness to show when she was sure she was completely alone. Sakura was a hunter and she kills for a living but she wasn't one without a conscience. It's just that she prefers to kill out of necessity and curbed any satisfaction from such act. She wasn't trying to justify herself so that some god would atone her sins once she was well dead and facing judgement. She just held this… moral so that she could keep a little bit of her sanity, to make sure she didn't become just like those ruthless killers she knew back home. She cared little about humanity since she could barely even understand the concept. How can she when all she ever does growing up was to master the art of assassination and learn how to turn herself into a coldblooded machine fit to serve the Mizukage. However, Sakura do know the value of life and she knew that she owed many. This final prayer for them was all she could offer since she had very little to begin with.

There were no more evidences left to exterminate so Sakura secured the scrolls inside her pouch and finally left the site to return home. By midnight, she passed the large gates silently into the still and quiet village that stank with blood. She scaled up the wall of her apartment and went inside via her balcony. She rarely uses her door since it tend to creak loudly and being a ninja, Sakura dislike to break the silence with meaningless noises. Silence in itself was already too loud for her to handle.

Methodically, she went to the bathroom attached to her bedroom and stripped away her uniform, dumping it into the hamper. She pulled her bloody mask off and mechanically washed away the blood. She then proceeded into the shower. When she finally stepped out of the bathroom and dressed herself in a pair of comfortable pants and a black tank top, she finally sat down and started to write her report. It was a routine for Sakura. Mission, come back home and shower, and then write her report. It was nothing out of the ordinary for her.

Once she was done, she sealed it and kept it locked inside her drawer so that she can send it in to the mission assignment office first thing in the morning. If it had been S-ranked she would've had to report directly to Yagura but since it was just A-ranked, all she had to do was to make sure it reaches the officers' hands. Sakura had supper, brushed her teeth and then slid into bed. She didn't change into a pyjama. She never had one anyway since 4 years ago apart from the black pyjama shorts she wears on her off-of-duty days. She found it practical to sleep in her ninja clothing or at least something that won't interrupt her movements when she feels the need to jump out of bed and break into some ninja moves.

Once, she wore a short cotton nightgown to sleep and in the middle of the night, a coup d'état attempt – which later failed – took place. She was forced out of bed and found herself fighting countless of rebels the next second. It was highly embarrassing to be fighting while dressed so scantily. She had stuck to her practical ninja sleepwear ever since.

* * *

The next morning, Sakura found herself in the mission assignment office turning in her report. She decided to go to the ANBU headquarters after that to catch up with the latest political gossips but before she could go there, a messenger poofed in front of her.

"Kunoichi Sakura, the Mizukage has summoned you," the Chuunin messenger informed her and disappeared within the next second.

Sakura shrugged and simply made her way towards the Mizukage's office which was just three floors up. As she was climbing up the stairs she bumped into her Jounin teammate, Kotaro Oden. He was like any average Kiri-nin; wild dangerous look and crazy about the Seven Swordsman of the Mist. Sakura wasn't surprised when he glared at her. His punishment by the Mizukage was apparent in his haunted bloodshot eyes and he was probably – without a doubt – pointing a crude blaming finger towards her.

"Hope you recovered well, bitch," he sneered.

"I did," she replied easily ignoring the hateful look on Kotaro's face.

"I'm glad," he expressed although he sounded the exact opposite of his voiced sentiments.

As they reach the Mizukage's door, Kotaro twisted the handle open and led them inside. She mirrored him and bowed to Yagura who was awaiting their arrival. She was surprised to find Ryo in the room, another one of her Jounin teammate. Ryo Takuma was the splitting image of Kotaro and they both pretty much share the same hatred towards her though he was much silent and prefer to taunt her with his sword rather than words like Kotaro. He stood still and expressionless but she could feel the hostility emanating from his entire being. As she stood in the middle, she realized that they were gathered here today as a unit.

For a second there, Sakura actually considered throwing herself out of the window as she always felt every time she was assigned into any missions with them. She has two permanent teams; her Jounin team and her ANBU team. But she preferred the latter team since they collaborate quite well compared to her old Jounin team. Hell, she collaborated well with anyone apart from Ryo and Kotaro. It really was ridiculous considering the 7 years she had been working with them but that just testify how much she hated her teammates and vice versa. Based on their last mission, she wondered just how much this one would end up badly and judging by their sneaking glares, she guessed it'll end up really bad.

"There is a problem with a client of ours. His men were safeguarding the Water Scroll but as of recent, he faces threats whom he claims are Konoha shinobi. Consequently, the transaction between our client and us regarding the scroll is put on hold," Yagura said as he stared at them steely.

"Just two days ago, his convoy was attacked. All his men were killed and the scroll is stolen," he looked to all three of them, making sure they were paying attention. "The Water Scroll must return to our hands."

He looked at the team before him with piercing eyes and ordered, "Retrieve the scroll and do not come back until you get it."

"Yes, Mizukage-sama," the three chorused.

Once dismissed, the team agreed to meet tomorrow and leave at dawn.

It was unbelievable. In spite of everything, Sakura felt like a live wire, buzzing to life and radiating disturbed energy the moment she stepped out of the office. Although the mission was to simply retrieve the scroll which was an extremely rare one, she knew it was going to fully exhaust her, mainly because she would have to force her cooperation onto the two most impossible people on earth. Moreover, she had this strange feeling, as if she was going to encounter something that will forever change her life. It was sort of like a premonition, a warning that alarmed her shinobi senses. She had learnt to trust her instinct and couldn't help but wonder what was in stored for her. She speculated that her unfortunate encounter with the Konoha ANBU previously had prompted this feeling since she was to deal with one of them again.

Whatever it was, she needed to carry out the mission dutifully and successfully. She nodded and determinedly strutted home to pack and draw out a plan.

* * *

Darkness bled into the horizon as the sun disappeared behind the mountains. The air was still and the night was eerily silent. Three figures clad in black and grey moved about in their makeshift camp wearily. Not many words were passed and one frustrated blonde was driven to the brink of boredom from the thick silence. Conversation starters like "Do any of you have extra ramen for me?" or "Hey, Teme, what do you think ramen tastes like with chocolate?" were flippantly ignored and more often replied with threatening glances and dark threats.

Naruto Uzumaki, a young man with clear blue eyes and whisker-like scars on his face, grumbled distastefully at his teammates' stick-up-their-asses attitudes and plopped down unceremoniously onto the ground with his arms crossed near the campfire. He stuck his tongue out childishly at their backs and tried to keep his mind off of his grumbling stomach by staring sulkily into the fire. Just because they felt suspicious with their quiet surroundings doesn't mean they should give him the cold shoulder and deny him food. The least that they could do was to give him an extra cup ramen – since he had ran out of his days ago – to enjoy while the both of them were busy tensing their muscles at every single tiny sound. And of course he would refuse any alternatives like the ration bars that tasted ridiculously like mosses and packed dirt even though it claimed to be highly nutritious and a good energy booster. He tried his luck again only to be responded with a hiss of "shut up" and an intense glare.

"And put your mask on, you idiot."

What an awful combination of asshole and jerk, he thought as he grudgingly slid on his fox mask onto his face. They were being paranoid – more than they usually were – these past few hours that it was beginning to grate on his nerves. So what if it was quiet? There isn't a village in the middle of the dark spooky Water country's forest. So what if it was awfully still? It's freaking late in the night, animals went to bed. So what if it was –

A sudden chill crept up his spine and before he could make any sound of surprise, his body froze and a figure was in front of him, holding a kunai upon his neck.

* * *

The retard stomped annoyingly towards the campfire, landed on his ass and sulked. Sasuke thought that after his order of silence, the blonde misfit would finally shut up but Naruto was notorious for being deaf and stupid. After the sound pollution from his loud grumbling stomach, Naruto decided to further his conquest to annoy the shit out of Sasuke by constantly asking for ramen. He and Sai both ignored him but Sasuke occasionally threw scathing looks that promised intense pain to scare the annoying blonde into silence but it failed, partly because his face were covered by his ANBU mask although admittedly, even without the mask the result would still be the same.

Over the years Naruto had built some sort of resistance towards the Uchiha's glares that could ripple even the calm in the strongest of Konoha. Sasuke threatened to drown Naruto in his Tsukuyomi if he doesn't shut his flappy mouth up and to his relief, Naruto did. However, his peace was short-lived because Naruto started to shoot random questions just minutes later. Naruto was either fearless or painfully stupid to be unaffected by his deathly threats. He strongly believed it was the latter.

After ordering him to put on his mask (that dumb idiot, anyone could walk in on them and see his face, Sasuke thought), he ultimately decided to tune Naruto out – as he usually does – and sit to relieve the slight numbness from standing too long. He knew he should be on guard but he thought that a short easy rest wouldn't cause much harm. Then he took a swig out of his water canteen and stared leisurely into the fire occupying himself with the dancing flames as it flickered brightly in the darkness providing warmth that gave a pleasurable feeling inside of him. He doesn't feel thirsty but he drank again. He glanced at Sai and saw him drawing into his notebook seriously, as if a sudden inspiration had struck him making him drop his guard for a moment in order to permanent whatever it was with ink on paper. He glanced lazily to the bag next to the cat-masked ANBU. He wasn't thirsty but still he drank more of the cool water from the silver canteen in his hand.

The first sign that something was wrong came when Sasuke realized that he was far too calm and relaxed and seemed to be enjoying himself, something foreign to himself while on duty. He blinked and tried to get up but his body felt heavy as if weighed down by thick invincible chains and a sudden want to drink again filled his mind… _but he wasn't thirsty_. If he wasn't on guard, Sai would've naturally taken his position as cover but instead, he was drawing as if they were not on dangerous territory and Naruto, despite keeping true to his idiocy would've noticed something different in their usual routine.

Furthermore, it was just odd that everyone looked idyllic and peaceful, which meant...

Just as he was about to activate his Sharingan, a sudden tormenting pain overcame his senses. Hot iron rods impaled itself into his brain and he screamed soundlessly. He wanted to bend over, drop on his knees and let his hands clutch his head tightly but his body refused. Somehow, the inability to move and struggle only made the pain worse because he was forced to focus on the suffering rather than being able to lessen it. Despite the mind numbing pain, Sasuke knew what to do in order to get out of this trap. He quickly activated his Sharingan causing the foreign chakra of the genjutsu to lose its grip on his system from the sudden rush of active energy. He could feel it struggling to remain in control but once activated, Sharingan was impervious to any genjutsu attempts, no matter how powerful. The genjutsu stood no chance and was immediately dispelled. He was finally relieved but the pain seemed to linger. He clutched his head tightly as his vision momentarily wavered.

When it cleared, he saw a ninja rummaging through Naruto's pockets while his other teammate were moving towards Sai where the scroll was lying unprotected in the bag by his side. His eyes zeroed in on the nin and tried to place where he had seen that familiar odd and displaced colouring before and remembered that weeks ago he had beaten up one kunoichi of the same petite physique. Kirigakure, he thought.

Cursing silently for being caught into a genjutsu, he swiftly unsheathed his chokuto named the Sword of Kusanagi and immediately charged towards the exposed back of the nin. He swung his sword and expected the blade to slice the body in half only to find it clanged heavily with another sharp blade that was as large as an adult's body. His eyes narrowed from the interference. Whoever had foolishly blocked him was about to face his wrath.

Pushing his chakra into the blade, he smirked as the nin pulled away just as the Kusanagi was about to cut through his thick and broad sword. The Kiri-nin retaliated soon after with a slash of his bladed weapon and in a wide sweep, blood cut through the air like red swath splattering over his body. Primal blood lust, murderous rage and a mindless need to kill was obvious by the loud feral snarl that accompanied his offense. Sasuke was aggravated to find his chest cut open, even when it was only skin deep due to his quick reflexes to step back in time. He glared venomously at his opponent, a slightly shorter man swinging his massive sword for another attack. Sasuke found himself unimpressed by the man's colossal weapon; size determines almost nothing and he had defeated more of a much bigger capacity. The nin brought his sword around at waist height forcing Sasuke to jump back in order to dodge the blow.

The nin once again swung his sword with ease in various reticulated arcs despite the weight of the blade. Sasuke jumped and dodged every single blow and even parried with his own sword. He noticed that despite the brash offence, they were all precise and forcing as if he knew exactly where the vital points were and where one hit could end it all. With Mangekyō Sharingan, Sasuke could easily predict his movements before the nin could even prosecute it.

Sasuke silently admits that the ninja's skills were acceptable, but he recognized only himself as the better adversary in this little melee. His muscles rippled as he shoved the man back hard enough so that he lost his balance and staggered to maintain his footing. Sasuke smirked and the Kiri's feral being growled swinging his sword with both hands in a wide sweep. Two blades met in rough kisses, both trying to dominate one another. Sasuke's thin lips began to pull into a scowl as they progress. While his Sharingan was able to predict movements, it took his skills to terminate this enemy nin but it was apparent that his opponent was trying to draw out the length of the battle. His red eyes glanced to his teammate's direction and noticed that the pink haired was already rummaging through the bag.

Sasuke moved fast and quick. With a nimble twist, his assailant stumbled back when Sasuke's sword lifted the bigger sword up and out of his hand with one swift and powerful blow. It skittered far off into the fire lit camp. His smirk deepened behind the mask as the nin took a step back with uncertainty. It amused him how the nin had thought it to be easy to defeat a man of his calibre. Even when he could see the look of utter distaste and hatred on the enemy's face, he could still clearly feel the deliberation radiating from every inch of his body. Sasuke's smirk faded into a scowl. Although he was uncertain, he did not feel fear. And Sasuke demanded that sort of aversion from him.

He lifted Kusanagi and pointed its deadly sharp tip directly into the enemy's face but the feral being's lips curled inside showing sharp rows of teeth and snapped his jaws at him, like some sort of an animal. Before Sasuke could plunge the sword into his thick skull, a voice called out a name. He turned his head to see both of the other Kiri-nins gone. Sasuke growled obscenities and turned his attention back to the Kiri-nin before him only to find a punch coming to his face. Before the fist could land Sasuke had already pushed his sword into the man's jugular but instead of blood spurting out of the body, the nin exploded into water. He let out a frustrated growl when he realized that the nin had probably substituted himself with a water clone while he was distracted only for a mere second. He quickly scanned the camp and saw that the gigantic sword was gone, proving that the nin had escaped.

Sasuke intended to immediately give chase but his teammates were still subdued by the genjutsu. He quickly went to Sai and noticed the unnatural stiffness of his posture. He looked around both Sai and Naruto for any traps just in case that the Kiri-nins intend to stall them longer. He found them and got rid of them; they were poison senbons ready to shoot by a trip of a wire caused by their movements. Not wasting time, he tried to dispel the genjutsu. It only took him two tries to completely dispel the thick cloud of illusion. Sai blinked back into his state of awareness slowly while Naruto shuddered and gasped heavily, his face turning into an ugly colour before he lunged to the side, pushed away his mask and emptied the contents of his stomach.

"Is the scroll safe?"

Sai slowly turned and checked his bag where the stolen scroll should be, but he found the bag empty. He gingerly shook his head and Sasuke let out a low growl.

"Hurry up. They couldn't have gotten far," he commanded.

Naruto shakily wiped the corner of his mouth and tried to stand up but the stress forced him to double over and puke once again. Sai seemed to be still disorientated and teetered dangerously when he tried to stand up. Sasuke gritted his teeth in annoyance at his companions' incapability. Without the Sharingan, they were unable to avoid the genjutsu like Sasuke had but the more time they wasted on being pathetic, the farther away the Kiri-nins would get.

Making up his mind, he ordered,

"Once you're done being useless, follow me."

And with that, he immediately sprinted to chase the escaping Kiri-nins before the trail grew cold.

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_**Author's note:**_

_Lackadaisical Love is resisting the plate of hot chocolate cookies next to her laptop..._

_1) The first scene was kinda unnecessary but I thought that if I included that in, I can show you guys how she generally carries out her hunter-nin duties. Oh, and also to enforce her Kirigakure-tainted personality and ideologies. Was it too harsh?_

_2) Okay, I really don't like to create made up characters (what's the term for it in FanFiction?) but I've googled all Mist-born characters and none could fit the role! And even if there are I kinda need them for future chapters. Besides, I desperately needed to show how detached she is from everybody so I needed someone who I can easily take out in the future. So that's why I created Ryo Takuma and Kotaro Oden. If you don't like them don't worry. I'll 'take care' of them. *evil chuckle*_

___3) ____ENTER SASUKE, SAI AND NARUTO! (Well, they were present before but here's their official acknowledgement.)_

_______4) I hope I didn't disappoint with this chapter. Enjoy please. And have some cookies. *points to plate of cookies*_


	4. Chapter 4

**Sakura: Pink hair, green eyes.**

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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**Author's Note:**_ I just realized that my story has been pure action from chapter 1 and it seems like it's going to continue. I've been trying so hard to make this story girl-ish with the promise of epic romance but LOL, I failed. I don't get it. I'm a romantic at heart. This should be easy. I tried to make it interesting here though. Hopefully, what I have is sufficient. Oh and I got two reviews from the last chapter. Thank you to those who reviewed and followed and favourited! I'm surprised you're even interested with this story. Haha. _

_Anyway, je vous pr_é_sente, chapter 4!_

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**Chapter 4**

There was no point in running. They were close approaching anyway and to run away only to get caught later would only be a waste of energy. So the three of them stopped and simply waited for the clash. Sakura gathered chakra and concentrated it around her eyes allowing her eyesight to enhance tenfold. She was able to see through the darkness and into the distance. It was a nifty little jutsu that she had managed to come up with several years ago and it had proven useful a lot of times including now.

"I've got one on my radar," Sakura informed her team seeing a figure moving rapidly towards them. Kotaro nodded understanding that they had somehow managed to escape his hellish genjutsu. He followed Sakura into the shadows and Ryo hid behind a shrubbery several metres in front of them.

This mission was supposed to be smoothly operated but when one of them had managed to snap out of the genjutsu before they could actually flee, it meant something was about to go wrong but Sakura would have none of it. They spent too much time tracking and waiting to let this mission go awry. At first, they had nothing to fall on and had only relied on a single trail of empty ramen cups that they found littered near the attack site. When they finally catch up to the Konoha-nins, they then had to wait for the perfect opportunity to steal the scroll back. It was during that waiting period that Sakura realized the Konoha-nins they were waiting to ambush was actually the very same one that had attacked them before. The Konoha ANBU. This fact driven her to ensure that this mission goes the right way and it kept her teammates on their toes. Besides, they could not return home without the scroll or Yagura would have their heads as the expense.

Kotaro moved beside her and suddenly thrust his hand out, palm up and open. Sakura raised one pink eyebrow.

"Give me the scroll," he growled.

"I got it. Just focus on the upcoming battle," Sakura forcefully replied. She felt more secure if the scroll was with her and for some reason, the look in Kotaro's eyes unease her.

"Just give me the damned scroll, pink bitch."

Sakura inwardly rolled her eyes at his pet name. She shook her head and determinedly stared him down. Kotaro snarled angrily when he realized that the scroll would not transfer into his hands anytime soon so with a final glare, he turned towards the direction the Konoha-nin would come from and waited irritably.

"Don't attack yet," Sakura cautioned when she noticed Ryo taking an impatient step forward and was surprised when he actually listened and halted. Yagura's punishment must've been unforgiving for him to actually start listening to her. If not, Ryo would've never allowed her to order him like that and would proceed to do as he pleases. Although he did shot her an ugly glare.

They received orders not to attack unless attacked first. This was all part of the armistice agreement between the two villages. If any side started unreasoned offence, they were allowed to start a war. Sakura knew of course both villages had broken the armistice several times before and the reason that they didn't go directly into war was because neither side was prepared. Kirigakure was still building up its military and economic power while Konohagakure was busy with their political involvement with other hidden villages. To go into another war while negotiating intense peace developments with others would damage their reputation. Besides, Kirigakure was also in their 'let's be friends' agenda so they tend to be tolerant with the Village of the Bloody Mist but in dire situations such as this, they certainly would not refrain from taking harsh actions.

Besides, as far as any of them was concerned, the fight was already pre-empted.

Not long after, Sakura saw more presences joining the area. The first Konoha ANBU appeared in front of them and a minute later he was joined by his teammates who did not looked affected by Kotaro's genjutsu at all. They must've found a fast way to recover because Sakura knew that any lesser shinobi would've cracked into insanity under Kotaro's sick ministrations, no matter how brief. Sakura and her teammates was hidden carefully but still they were spotted. A kunai then flew past them. Sakura somersaulted into the air abandoning all hope for another surprise ambush as more weapons came flying their way. When she landed on the ground, she saw Ryo had started to brandish his weapon again preparing for another fight.

"We're going to slay these tree huggers," Kotaro declared by Ryo's side who was quivering with anticipation. Tree huggers were of course the affectionate names given to Konoha shinobi by Kiri shinobi, never mind that their own village was equally as green as Konoha.

"Funny how you didn't say that the last time," Sakura couldn't help but brought it up.

"Golden opportunity to get rid of a cunt like you. Who wouldn't miss it?" Kotaro replied offhandedly and Ryo snickered.

Sakura frowned and ignored them. This wasn't the first time they had expressed their wish to get her killed and to be frank, she didn't care anymore. It was never successful and it will never be.

"Focus," Sakura mumbled. Both of them just grinned widely but in an unfriendly way before turning their focus towards the Konoha ANBU. Sakura however, didn't notice how Kotaro looked at her especially at the pouch which contained the Water scroll while she was busy anticipating the fight now that the Konoha-nins were directly in front of them.

Sakura couldn't guess the outcome of the battle. To her, they were almost at the same level. Ryo was an incredible fighter once he gets into the mood – once his crazy, carnivore incarnate side is awaken. Kotaro however, was considerably weaker once someone learn how to get past his genjutsu. It was his only ability but even then, it was enough to cripple someone for a lifetime and he was abundant with those type of jutsu. They were certainly capable but they were also very foolish. The only reason Kotaro and Ryo could anticipate a fight with them rather than running away for their lives was because they hadn't witnessed these ANBU in action and was overestimating themselves as always, and of course partly because they were mentally twisted and clamoured for their enemy's blood.

Typical.

Sakura held the mission's objective in her hands that needed to be delivered back to the village at all cost but playing the role of backup and medic was not required seeing how their numbers match. But she needed to distance herself from the two so that she didn't get caught with more than one opponent to ensure the decrease rate of losing the scroll. She was about to leap back a few distance away to complete the V formation but Ryo suddenly told her to just leave altogether.

"What?" Sakura shot him an incredulous look.

"Leave. Get that scroll away," he repeated with his eyes set on a Konoha-nin and Sakura was surprised when even Kotaro glared at him.

"If you think I can't handle them then you're wrong," she hissed. How many times does she have to prove to them that she could just about beat anyone's ass, including theirs?

"Bitch, just go," he barked. "And you were almost killed the last time, in case you've forgotten. Leave it to us men."

"They are ANBU and there's three of them, dumbass!" Sakura snapped back enraged from his chauvinistic and idiotic reply.

"You deaf little bitch? I said Kotaro and I will deal with them. Go and take your flat ass elsewhere, and don't forget the scroll," he bit back resolutely as if he was the one in command. He clearly had forgotten who the leader of this mission was and to think, that he was just making a fine progress… Before Sakura could say anything, he sprinted towards the Konoha-nins and the clang of blade against blade set the whole thing into motion.

Fine, she thought bitterly. Without sparing another glance, she turned and sped off. She didn't know if they would join her soon, but that was none of her concern. They'll come when they do. Several minutes later, Sakura heard the magnitude of the fight behind her. She pushed her legs further, determined to escape the battle's vicinity. Nobody was chasing after her and that meant her teammates were doing well occupying the Konoha ANBU's hands. The feel of raw power radiated from the spot where she left her comrades behind and it gripped her system uncomfortably.

Ryo was known for his rage and monstrous need – not lust, and that was far more terrifying – for blood and pain. Kotaro was simply messed up and would end up ten times worse if he wasn't careful. For some reason, her gut instinct told her neither Ryo nor Kotaro would come out alive. She didn't know how strong their opponents were but enough to know that they were ANBU and were more than capable in killing. Sakura believed that the Sharingan wielder was strong, he certainly seemed like he did. It was the way he controlled himself, the way his chakra ran through his veins and into his bleeding eyes that suggested his abnormal capabilities.

For some odd reason, the Sharingan wielder was the one she held the most grudge for even when his teammates played just as much role as he did in belittling her in that unfair three against one fight barely a month ago. Sakura wanted to repay him for what he did. Most definitely. In fact, she was disgruntled with the fact that she was running away while her teammates were having the time of their lives. She refused to believe that her chances to defeat him were slim to none. He needed to taste his own medicine. He needed to know what being on the ground, beaten to a pulp tasted like. Sakura wasn't weak. She could definitely give him a beating.

Sakura was a good distance away from them by now but suddenly, she felt someone moving rapidly towards her. It had been a good 15 minutes since she left them behind. Could it be that Ryo and Kotaro had finished? Looking behind her, Sakura could only see blurring trees as she jumped from tree to tree. She could make out a figure moving through the trees swiftly from the distance but he was still very far away that even her enhanced eye could not cover. Sakura couldn't guess if that was her teammate or the enemy so she only pushed herself faster. If it was her teammate then they would catch up.

She was right. In a matter of minutes, Kotaro was then suddenly by her side.

"Where's Ryo? Is the fight finished?"

Kotaro slowed down and so did she.

"I crippled one of them, the cat," he said, looking at her with dangerous eyes.

"And the two others?"

"Ryo," he simply replied.

Sakura understood that he had left the swordsman with the remaining two but even Sakura knew that that was still too many opponents for one shinobi, considering their ranks. With Kotaro there the fight would be level and they could even have the chance of winning but it seems like he had opted to take a different route. It was unusual to be experiencing it from a different perspective but this time, Kotaro had decided to ditch their teammate to his death. It used to always be her. Sakura looked at him strangely and asked, "I thought you liked the guy?"

"We're fine," by this time they were already stopping and landed on a thick tree branch that were able to support the both of them, "but I like the Water scroll better."

Confused, Sakura opened her mouth to speak but then her body suddenly felt extremely heavy and a false sense of security wiped over her entire being. Sakura's eyes widened when she realized what he was doing. He reached out for the scroll that was on the pouch close to her bottom and when he got it, he gave an ugly smirk towards her. Sakura was unable to do anything because his genjutsu was already wrapped securely around her. She desperately tried to counter his genjutsu but he wasn't exactly toying with her mind, or wasn't toying deep enough for her mechanism to kick in. If he had dived deeper inside her mind, she would've made sure he encountered the volatile nature of her inner self and release it upon him. However, he had only started by torturing her senses. His genjutsu allows its victim to be aware of their surroundings but render them completely immobile by prompting the brain to think it was safe so that they would be caught unguarded. Then he would make her senses suffer from excruciating pain and that was what she felt a second later.

Sakura stepped back blindly in her agony and fell from the tree hitting the ground with a sickening crash. She continued to writhe in agony on the ground but was still able to feel slow steps moving towards her.

"You bastard, what are you doing?" She spat and screamed when something excruciatingly hot jabbed through her head. Her skull was melting, her brain was boiling and it felt like someone was gauging her eyes out with burning iron rods. It was all an illusion and knowing so help kept her from completely buckling under the pressure.

He chuckled and something inside her stirred awake. "I'm sick of being around you and I'm sick of the village. I've been wanting to leave for a while now but I needed some cash," he looked at the intricately designed blue scroll with jewelled wooden rollers and tapped one of the sapphires with a satisfied look on his face. "This'll cover me for how many month, five? Eight? A year?"

Sakura barely heard him but after he spoke the pain travelled down to her body. Now, her skin felt like it was set ablaze. But it didn't deter her from telling him that he was screwed.

"B-bastard, the Mizukage will never let you go f-for this," Sakura gasped.

He knelt down and grabbed her face roughly towards him inspecting her tear-glazed eyes, "You know for an ANBU, you're not very strong. Are you? Useless pink-haired bitch."

Sakura growled when he knocked her forehead hard with his knuckles, claiming it was so wide he could piss at it and not miss. He let go of her face and wiped his hand on his shirt as if he had just touched dirt. He stood up with a sneer and wanted to continue insulting her but Sakura had suddenly turned and sweep his legs off the ground.

"What? How?!"

Sakura swiftly climbed on top of him and punched him in the face. He howled and pushed her off of him.

"You little shit, you broke my nose!"

"I'm not ANBU for nothing, Kotaro," Sakura reminded him and stood up albeit with a little limp. Her ankle was sprained when she fell from the tree.

Kotaro scrambled to his feet but before he could do anything Sakura punched him in the gut with chakra enhanced fist and he flew from the impact and into a tree. He was immediately knocked out when the tree cracked in half and hit him in the head when he didn't properly swerve out of the way. Sakura went to him and took back the scroll.

"You did a terrible mistake Kotaro," Sakura muttered as she tied his hands behind him with chakra draining strings and secured his legs tightly. Then, she quickly healed her ankle.

Sakura stared at him and wondered what she should do now. Ryo was – hopefully – still holding up with the Konoha ANBU and now, she needed to not only bring back the rare scroll but Kotaro as well who had attempted desertion. At the same time, she also had to consider if she needed to go back to Ryo now that Kotaro had left him with three – two, she corrected – enemies. As capable as Ryo was, she had doubts if he could manage even two ANBU. But then that would limit the succession percentage of the mission. Not only would she risk her life but she would also risk losing the scroll.

Before she could decide however, she felt a presence fast approaching. Her eyes widened and she inhaled sharply. That chakra certainly didn't belong to Ryo so that meant that one of them had managed to escape. Or worse, killed off Ryo. Sakura planted several genjutsu traps Kotaro had unwillingly taught her several years ago and heaved Kotaro onto her shoulder. He was heavy and was taller than her but she managed. She dashed away as fast as she can with adrenaline coursing through her system. To her utter dismay, she could still feel the presence of that one Konoha ANBU pursuing her. He passed by her genjutsu easily prompting Sakura to chide herself for not improving on her genjutsu skills although she had no idea that it wouldn't work against him anyway.

The night was quiet minus her ragged breathing and the almost silent thumping of her landings. A kunai wheezed dangerously pass her, a warning that the enemy was close. She skidded to a halt and spun to the direction of the projectile. Aided by the moonlight, her sharp eyes swept over the expanse of trees trying to find the presence that had finally caught up to her. She pulled out a kunai attached with an explosive tag and threw it towards one direction where she believed he was at, hiding with the aid of the shadows. When it exploded, several large trees fell. Sakura dropped Kotaro to the ground and took a few steps forward carefully searching for him. She knew he was still around, she felt his presence lingering briefly in one place to the other, as if he was dancing around her. The wind slapped her gently and played with her long pink hair while the leaves teased her senses.

Right. Left. Behind…

He wasn't under her… was he?

A second later she was answered when her pursuer charged from the sky, jumping at her with his thin long sword slicing downwards. She cartwheeled backwards and dodged several more attacks. She slammed her foot into the ground and it cracked and shuddered in response. The nin staggered backwards and halted his advance. Sakura cringed when Kotaro fell into the cracks. _Oops_, she thought. Before she could dwell on the sorry state of her almost defected teammate, the Konoha-nin charged towards her again and she tried her hardest to avoid his attacks.

Sakura noticed – not for the first time – that he was incredibly fast, even faster than Captain Tsurugi, her ANBU captain who was notorious for his speed in Kirigakure. If it wasn't for the speed exercises, she wasn't sure if she could keep up with this ninja. She didn't understand how she even managed to in their last pathetic encounter. She got caught in his grips and was thrown away. She flipped mid-air and landed with a skid of hand and knee.

She studied him carefully taking notes of his physical again. Sakura knew that this was the Sharingan user judging from his stance and choice of weapon alone. He was clad in a black attire with Konoha's ANBU grey vest. With his cloak already discarded, she was able to see his lean but muscular figure. His mask was cracked revealing what looked like a peek of patrician features. He had black hair as dark as midnight that framed his face at the sides, falling enticingly into his mask at the front and styled in an array of disastrous perfection at the back and his eyes, she noticed, were obsidian and not the deep bleeding red she had remembered. They also lacked the details she almost failed to catch the last time so she concluded that he had opted to turn off his dōjutsu. From the little of his exposed face, Sakura assumed that he was no doubt good looking but that hardly mattered at the moment.

She saw that he looked slightly worn from his previous fight and she definitely saw the stream of blood running down his head and several other severe looking wounds on his body. Ryo had done a good deal of damage on him, but not enough apparently since he was still standing with perfect ease in front of her. In fact, he looked barely affected by them. Sakura turned off her eye enhancement jutsu. It was designed for scouting and now that he was presented in front of her, it was pretty much useless. Besides, it was taking too much focus too keep it on.

"You," his voice knocked her breath out. It was deep and smooth; full with grave reckoning just as she had remembered it. And it reminded her of her own Mizukage, whose voice was so rich it took no effort to demand attention. And apparently, the nin before her shares the same trait although they were very, very different. He sounded so cold it reminded her of a blizzard in midwinter.

"Where is my teammate?" Sakura promptly asked.

He didn't answer but glanced pointedly at the boneless heap in between the cracked earth.

"Not that one," she clarified but he didn't answer and only looked at her silently. Sakura thought he was just trying to steal some resting time.

"Where is he?" Sakura repeated her question.

"Dead," he finally replied. Sakura stiffened, unable to believe him.

"You're lying."

Sakura saw him tilting his head to the side and continued to silently observe her, as if deciding which way was best to eliminate her.

Sakura kept a steady, cautious gaze on him as he calmly swing his blade into position. Was Ryo really gone? She didn't know if she can believe this guy or not. Sakura knew Ryo was strong, but she also knew that her enemy was too. Maybe he was lying, maybe he had simply just managed to slide past him and had chased after her in favour of retrieving the scroll. _Or maybe he really is dead_, Sakura simply thought. Was there an actual reason not to believe that the Kirigakure demon had finally reached his expiry date? She has got to be honest with herself, she never really trusted her teammates to live long. Not at the rate they were going. Sakura glanced at Kotaro and knew that his life would be 99% on the line once they return home. Traitors – succeeded or not – receives no leniency. Even knowing this, Sakura had to bring him back to the village because it was her duty even as she wrestled with the conflicting emotions it brought up. Teammate or no, he should be handed to Yagura.

"Hand me the scroll."

She quirked her eyebrow, skilfully pretending to not comprehend his demand.

"Hn, playing dumb is a waste of time," he stated.

Of course he knows about the scroll in her pouch; an illegal scroll initially belonged to the Water country that was sought after by many for its content and value. She had just stolen it back right under his nose (and Kotaro then stole it but she stole it back, again).

"You're an Uchiha, aren't you?" Sakura asked trying to buy her some time to plan a way to get around him. She wouldn't mind fighting but she had to consider her mission. She needed to take the scroll back but she also wanted to beat the ninja in front of her senseless. Besides, she didn't know much about him. Who is he? What can he do? Did he plan to kill her? Will he succeed?

"…"

"One of those big clans in Konoha, right? Pretty famous," she tried again, as if trying to start a conversation.

"You," she looked at him expectantly, "…are annoying."

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him, not amused by his response.

Before she could retort, he moved. He was blindingly fast she almost missed him; a mistake she wasn't keen on repeating. He appeared behind her and she jumped just in time before his sword could pierce through her. The blade sliced the air several times as she moved and dodged with care. When she saw an opening, she gathered chakra and kicked the blade away at its hilt causing it to fly and drop a good distance away, and of course bruising his wrist when the sword twisted out of his grasp.

He glared and moved towards her and made to seize her but she nimbly danced out of his reach. She pulled out a kunai and tried to cut him with it. When he grabbed her wrist to block her attempt making her drop the weapon, an evil thought came into her mind and she made to kick him where no man can ever survive from the pain. Sakura aimed a forceful kick to his lower region but he deftly blocked it with his other hand, grabbing it firmly. With his strength, he spun and threw her into a tree. Sakura grunted painfully when she collided with the tree trunk.

Quickly, she tried to stand up but a foot pushed her back down. Sakura gritted her teeth frustratingly. She gathered familiar chakra in her palm and shaped it like a scalpel, then awkwardly tried to cut the tendon of his other foot that wasn't on her but he moved in time to kick her face. Sakura saw this coming and raised her crossed arms – the sudden action making her lose focus and inactivating her chakra scalpel – to deflect the attempt. Stopped short, the Konoha-nin grunted and grabbed Sakura by the collar and raised her up, slamming her into the tree. Because of her height disadvantage, she was lifted well above the ground and had to hold on to his forearms for balance. Not wanting to lose, she lifted her lower body up agilely and locked his head in her legs. Trying to suffocate him, she twisted her body. The move made him lost his balance and they crashed to the ground but Sakura didn't give up her strong hold on him. He let out a guttural growl when Sakura pulled his left arm back with her free hands, like an awkward arm bar.

Sakura could've broken his neck but before she could apply enough pressure, he forcefully twisted his body and within seconds, he was out of her restraint. She couldn't see what had happened but the next thing she knew, she was roughly shoved into the tree again; both hands behind her upper back in his vice-like grips. It felt as if he was hugging her while restricting her movements and it made Sakura embarrassed and angry at the same time.

"The scroll," he demanded.

It was in the pouch close to her behind but she wasn't about to tell him that and he certainly wasn't about to wait for her answer. He pulled away from her only to force her by the throat to the tree with just one hand and used his other one to search her body for it. Sakura was mad because 1) she was choking and 2) she was being molested by a stupid supposedly good-looking tree hugger.

She swung her legs up again but he immediately intercepted it by grabbing her thighs and forcing it around his lean waist, pushing his body forcefully against her to keep her in place. Sakura noticed him wincing when her body collided with his wounds at the same time she registered the rough tree bark digging painfully into her back. Her face burned furiously from his action.

"What the hell are you doing?!" She screeched like a banshee, struggling against him and ignoring the lack of air.

"Shut up," he ordered brusquely, his hand searching the pockets of her uniform.

"If you don't let me go now, I swear I'll kill you!" Sakura choked out furiously.

He ignored her and in less than a second, his hand went south. She felt herself burning with embarrassment and by the time she saw him smirking upon finding the location of the scroll, she was boiling with rage. Before he could take the scroll out of the pouch, she let go of her hands from his choking arm and punched him squarely in the face, furiously thinking why she hadn't thought of that earlier. The Konoha-nin let out a surprised sound and instantly let her go. She fell onto the ground and hastily gasped for air.

Remembering the scroll, she reached towards her back to feel if the cylindrical hard lump were still there and to her horror, the pouch was empty. She turned to see the Konoha-nin with one hand over his masked face and the other defiling one gripping a familiar blue and intricately designed scroll. Sakura felt pride when she noticed that a large chunk of the mask fell to reveal even more of his face. Yup, he was good-looking. Insanely beautiful actually even when half of his face was still hidden beneath the porcelain mask. But those thoughts were promptly pushed to the very back of her mind.

"You… you bastard!" Sakura snarled.

Although he was adamant for the scroll and had used that bodily attack on her simply because it was easier, doesn't mean that he can still do it. Sakura was a kunoichi whom sole purpose was to be used and served but she was still a prided woman. She would not let anyone degrade her and this Konoha shinobi, who supposedly came from a prestigious clan with respectful upbringing could not and would not ever treat her the same way ever again, even when she was just a nameless kunoichi in his life. Granted he had only patted in places and was doing so only because her uniform and vest had many hidden pockets but Sakura never liked having unknown hands on her body. It was threatening and dangerous so the sound reason quickly flew over her mind.

"How dare you," she growled.

"Hn, considering how you tried to attack me earlier, I think we can call it even," he grunted.

Sakura looked taken aback and fought back the threatening blush on her face. Indeed just moments ago she had tried kicking him in that place which she was sure was very much needed for reproduction but hey, it was self-defence.

She completely ignored his jibe and created a set of clones and charged simultaneously towards him; all armed with chakra scalpels and aiming for the stolen scroll. If she loses it, the Mizukage was going to have her head. Sakura thought she saw his partly visible face distorted into shock but not even a second later it was gone. He kept dodging her chakra scalpels, clearly knowing that it could completely incapacitate him if it sliced his tendons. He evaded all attacks but was unable to get rid of the clones because of the constantly swinging chakra weapon. Sakura saw him jumping back and noticed the extremely fast hand seals formation and quickly dived to the side while her clones continued to charge at him. A ball of fire erupted from his mouth and barrelled into her copies, effectively ending them.

For a while, it was silence. Sasuke cast an eye over the perimeter trying to locate the Kiri-nin.

"So tell me… what does Sharingan do?" Her voice resonated through the dark forest.

"I don't think that's what your Kage wants," he replied stoically and scanned the area trying to pinpoint the source of the voice.

"No, but I'm interested."

"…"

"Don't want to share? Fine. Let's talk about your friends then," he glanced to his left, "I find them really interesting. That guy in fox mask, he eats a lot," he glanced to his right, "Thanks to his ramen cups we managed to find you."

_Tch, should've known it was the idiot's fault,_ Sasuke thought as he turned around and faced the kunoichi who was standing a distance behind him.

"I think you're more interested in getting your scroll back," he said coldly, feeling a sudden tug on the scroll in his left hand.

Sakura smiled and nodded conformingly, seeing that he was already aware of the thin water strings on her fingers attached to the scroll.

"I take it or I destroy it. Either way you're not getting them," she informed him.

She did not like the thought of coming back home empty handed but when worse come worst she would need to destroy it like she had promised. It would be better when no one could obtain the scroll. She tugged the strings but the Konoha ANBU had his grip on them tight.

"Hn."

Sakura kept his piercing gaze steadily, at ease with the fact that his Sharingan was inactive at the moment. A flicker of chakra from her left and she realized that one of the Konoha ANBU was heading their way, the one that was not incapacitated by Kotaro. Ryo's death was turning into a factual information by now and she was growing concerned. Kotaro was knocked out cold and even when he was conscious, she doubted that he'd lend a helping hand. If no one was able to assist her, none of them can come out alive or worse, unable to complete the mission.

_I really need to sort my priorities straight_, Sakura thought disconsolately.

"Suiton: Suiben," she suddenly performed a quick jutsu taking her opponent by surprise.

A thicker water rope materializes and she threw it around him. He was unable to dodge the attack and was bounded within seconds. His eyes narrowed dangerously at her but she only smirked.

Before he could do anything, she let electrical energy surge through the rope and shock him. He let out a yell and dropped to the ground on one knee jerking and twitching; that was the opportunity for Sakura to pull the smaller string and the scroll came flying towards her. She quickly secured it inside her pouch again. The jutsu was supposed to completely incapacitate him. The electrical power was no small spark but the Uchiha got up fairly quickly and had charged towards her despite his bounds. Sakura let more of the electric pass at a higher voltage – the maximum – but she was taken by surprise when he took that electrical energy, ran it through his body and into the ground. Surprised, she was unable to respond quickly for his next move. When he reached her, he smashed his head against hers resulting Sakura to stagger backwards in pain and let loose of her hold on the rope. He disintegrated himself and soon Sakura was once again forced to fight a hand-to-hand combat with him. His taijutsu skills was superb; fast and strong.

Instantly overwhelmed, Sakura formed chakra scalpel again and tried to cut his tendons. This particular move prevented him from coming too close for attack so she was able to go full offense. He back flipped and muttered, "Chidori."

Sakura heard melodious loud chirping of birds and her eyes widened perceptibly when she saw lightning chakra concentrating on one of his hand. The chakra was so concentrated it was visible and it flared like a ball of lightning. She knew that one hit from that jutsu would be fatal so she bent her knees and waited for the right moment to spring away when he approach. He charged towards her and just as he was a metre from her, she jumped away and destroyed the ground with her heels for good measure. He almost slipped and the Chidori flew past her but still managed to graze her left side of the body. She was horrified to find that the clothes there was burnt through and her flesh underneath it was excruciatingly charred.

Sakura grimaced but didn't stop.

"Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu!"

A dragon shot out from nowhere and chased after him. Even with the knowledge that her opponent was a lightning user, Sakura still went with the water jutsu because she knew her dragon would never allow him even half a second to perform another seal. The pink haired let the dragon rage towards the Uchiha as she quickly healed her sides. She normally wouldn't have bothered but the severity of the damage was quite big for a graze of a jutsu. It felt as if her flesh was savagely cooked. Sakura was soon finished when the pain was bearable – she didn't heal the skin nor the majority part of her injury but simply numbed the pain receptors until she was safely away to completely heal it. It took her only 3 minutes but even then that was a lot of time.

Sakura stood up and when the body of the dragon came before her she jumped on it and ran to its head. She controlled her dragon while riding atop of it with the intent of destroying her enemy. The water creature swivelled dangerously trying to land a hit on the Konoha-nin but he was able to dodge perfectly well with the utilisation of his speed but the pink-haired nin knew she was wearing him down. Sakura saw him stopped and urged her dragon to move with insane speed towards him. He flipped backwards and countered with a barrier of earth, "Doton: Doryūheki!"

The dragon crashed into the wall of earth resulting to a muddy chaos. Then, almost immediately, Sasuke sensed the approach of a deadly fist and nearly bent over in half to avoid being hit. He then met with another fist to which he again dodged and it shattered the tree behind him. When she looked at him, she saw that his eyes had bled to red. He had finally thought she was more than she looked and acknowledged that he had to be careful around her. This made Sakura extremely happy she almost jumped with joy despite the fact that he was more likely to kill her now.

Again they clashed. They continued like this for a while – as if the Uchiha was humouring her effort now that his Sharingan was on. Sakura gritted her teeth as his leg slammed into her side, crushing some of her ribs. She kept her balance, grabbed his leg and twisted. She heard a satisfying snap and grinned as he blanched – before he disappeared. Damn substitution jutsu. Sakura looked around but he was nowhere in sight. She didn't move but opted to heal her ribs. Every breath she took was painful so she gathered healing chakra and focused on that injury or else it would cripple her. She was barely finished when a fist came out of nowhere to meet her face but she managed to dodge. Sakura cursed as she jumped into the air, making a few hand signs. She was cut off from finishing them, however, as she blocked his kick with her arm. She gathered chakra to her fist effortlessly and proceeded to aim it to his head but he stepped sideways causing her knuckle to collide with the tree bark behind him for the umpteenth time.

Several times her punches had destroyed the trees and even the ground much to his chagrin. He managed a lot of hits on her body and by the time Sakura managed to force herself away from him, she was covered with fresh deep cuts and nasty injuries. Her breathing was laboured and she trembled from the stress.

She winced and took a step back. He took a step forward.

"Don't move," she warned him, staring at his right shoulder with sudden interest. It would not bode well if she met his eyes now that they were gleaming murderous red.

She waited for his response with hidden nervousness and that was when she detected two chakra signatures some distance away. She also heard noises; shouts, yells and rumbles amongst the sound of thudding and something hitting something. It grew louder and louder and within seconds she was able to recognize Ryo's chakra. She inwardly smirked, she knew he wasn't dead. But the elated feeling was diminished the minute she heard an animalistic roar reverberating piercingly throughout the forest. As she was taken by surprise, she failed to remember the Konoha shinobi in front of her. The male in front of her tilted his head sideways to his left shoulder, eyes not leaving the pink haired kunoichi who was clearly distracted.

"Your name."

Sakura looked at him (his shoulder) startled by the sudden statement-like question.

"I don't think that's important," she hotly answered.

He didn't reply but kept his narrowed gaze on her, studying her like a hawk. She had long pink hair flowing down her back and framing her heart shaped face. She also had large green eyes and thoroughly feminine features that were somewhat roughen up by her scowl. She was slightly diminutive in size – very thin compared to many girls he knew – but she exuded an air of brutality despite her girly and frail characteristics. She was clad in black and grey of her uniform which consisted of black sleeveless shirt, dirty grey waist-guard, dark knee-length pants and short-heeled ninja sandals complete with a striped material – a trait of Mist country – around her hands over a pair of thick leather gloves. If it wasn't for the dark attire, he would've thought she deceptively looked like spring. Though he knew she wasn't fragile since she was fairly beaten and had put up quite the resistance.

However, there was something strange about her. Her fighting style was familiar yet completely different. The earth shattering kicks and punches was oddly a characteristic strongly related to their current Hokage, Lady Tsunade. But she was a Kiri kunoichi, how was she be able to learn such techniques if those were Konohagakure Hokage's famous moves? He knew the woman had never had a disciple before apart from Shizune so to meet someone who bore similar fighting traits but from another hidden village that was less than friendly was intriguing. What was more was that this kunoichi was stronger than she appeared. He may not appear to show it but he was affected by her brutal attacks and her insane chakra techniques had severed the muscles and tendons of his left arm, rendering it useless. He had unwisely underestimated her.

"Your name, kunoichi."

She opened her mouth to snap back, when out of the blue a loud shout sounded from the darkness.

"SAKURA, RUN!"

Startled, she snapped her head towards the forest opposite of her.

The Sharingan wielder bolted towards her to prevent her from running away but he suddenly found himself dodging blows from a huge sword he knew belonged to the kunoichi's teammate. Sasuke growled. He had left this meddlesome nin to Naruto but clearly, he had not done his job right. Sai, on the other hand, was already knocked out cold first by a genjutsu, left behind safely behind a marked bush.

"RUN, NOW!"

Without a second thought, she obeyed, grabbing Kotaro's pathetic unconscious form from underneath the shattered ground and speeding off with chakra pumped feet. She didn't bother turning around but she could imagine vividly Ryo being terribly bloodied and struggling against two men, swinging his broken sword around with a look that was reserved for hell's most damned occupant. She knew he wasn't dead. _But now, he will be, _she thought solemnly.

She wanted to join the fray but if she stayed, she was sure she would be caught up in that fight and ultimately failing their objectives. That was to be prevented at all cost. By now she had to come to terms that Ryo would most likely die while giving her enough time to escape and that Kotaro would be in a lot of trouble when they reach home. However, she could not fathom why it was not as unsettling as the beautiful man with hair as dark as the night and eyes as mysterious as the dark side of the moon that bleeds to red with a name so powerful, it brought fear more than death could.

The Sharingan wielder, the Uchiha clansman; he had asked for her name and Ryo, unbeknownst to him, had provided him the answer much to her dismay. No matter. The only thing to do now was to run and get away safely. As she disappeared, she failed to notice the ANBU stop and stared with sharp furrowing red eyes after her retreating back.

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**Author's Note:**

_1) *smirk and wiggle eyebrows*_

_2) So tell me what you think. Be shy do not. I read your reviews, often with a smile. :)_

_Have a nice day!_


	5. Chapter 5

**Sakura: Pink hair, green eyes.**

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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**Author's Note: **_Hi! I'd like to welcome new readers to my humble little story. __Thank you for the kind reviews in the last chapters and for the follows. I really appreciate it. _

_ Okay. This chapter will show an outsider view for a change. I want to start focusing on the plot (finally!) and reveal what's about to happen in the future chapters. Initially I just wanted to use Sakura's point of view but then I couldn't help it but get excited with the idea of using someone else's perspective, namely Sasuke. So here's the result! Not really as serious as I'd like it to be but oh well._

_Hope you enjoy it. Smiles. _

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**Chapter 5**

Team 7 returned to their village empty handed. Their opponents had been strong and had successfully stolen the scroll back. That was the reason why Sasuke, Naruto and Sai were standing in front of Tsunade wincing as the busty blonde yelled her displeasure at their incompetence. She wasn't exactly pleased with the loss of the scroll that Konoha had spent decades looking for. Apparently the scroll had worth more than their lives put together. Sasuke deftly dodged the bottle of sake thrown at him and it crashed with the door behind him spilling the non-existent content within it – she had probably drunk the whole thing before.

It wasn't the first time he had seen her like this although admittedly, he was never the receiving end. Braving her roars of anger was proving lethal to his ears and body as she continued to assault them with endless supplies of empty sake bottles and loud reproaches. Naruto was reduced to a cowering bundle of mass behind Sai whom fake smile had long since forcefully wiped off of his insipid face and replaced with a look of sickly terror upon finding himself in a situation he had never encountered before.

"Forgive us, Tsunade-sama. The recurrence of such mistake will not happen again," Sasuke promised through gritted teeth.

She wasn't the only one who was disappointed with his team's performance. The Mist-nins were surprisingly skilful, as expected from the warmongering village. Sai and Naruto fought the genjutsu user while Sasuke occupied himself with the sword wielder who had targeted him. They were both equally demonic. However, halfway throughout the fight the genjutsu user abruptly left the battle after incapacitating Sai with a strong genjutsu. While Naruto turned to fight the swordsman, Sasuke dragged Sai behind a bush and cancelled the genjutsu but the cat ANBU was unable to wake up from it after that. Being attacked twice in a row in the head was too much of a damage towards someone, even for a seasoned ANBU like Sai. When Sasuke emerged from the place he hid Sai, he told Naruto to kill the swordsman and come after him once he was done. Sasuke proceeded to chase after the scroll before it got too far away.

When he caught on, he surprisingly found the genjutsu male tied up and knocked out pathetically so. He was curious as to why that kunoichi had done that to her teammate but he shrugged it off. Whatever happened between them was none of his concerns as he was there for the scroll only. When Sasuke fought with the kunoichi, he was surprised that he needed to activate his Sharingan again. It was hard to believe that this was the group of shinobi they had mistakenly ambushed some time ago – the kunoichi especially. Sasuke remembered the strange pink hair and steel jade eyes perfectly. Unlike the last time they had encountered, she was far more prepared and was armed with bulldogged determination. He was left indented with the impression that she was a ruthless fighter. She had practically destroyed the landscape with her small fists and heels, no matter how unbelievable that had been.

"This was not supposed to happen. Kirigakure wasn't supposed to be aware of us!" Tsunade groaned.

The team remained silent, unsure of how to proceed. They regarded the blonde woman carefully in case another flying projectile would render them unconscious. However, the Fifth Hokage only rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed deeply.

"What is done is done I guess. But the repercussions of this mission would of course deter Konoha from our negotiations with Kirigakure," Tsunade grumbled dissatisfiedly and finally looked up towards the three bumbling idiots in front of her.

They recovered fairly quickly for the damage that was dealt towards them. She admitted that when they arrived at the hospital, she thought she was going to lose one of them, namely Sai. And despite her annoyance for their failed mission, she was glad that they came out alive. It would've been a sore loss if a member of this ANBU team had died. They were one of the most talented rookie teams after all. Even though they were aware of the complication behind the S-ranked mission, Tsunade had expected them to handle this problem with more finesse.

Naruto, sensing Tsunade's anger receding, finally decided to come out of his hiding place behind Sai and gingerly asked,

"Ne, baa-chan… what's going to happen now?"

"I have no idea but I suspect they would be furious with the breach of trust, not that there was any to begin with. They always knew that we wanted the Water Scroll so there's no surprise there," and as if she had registered something a second too late she snapped, "And don't you dare call me baa-chan again you impudent brat!"

Naruto would've normally bawled an insult back but even in all his stupidity, he realized that this was not a great time to pick up a fight with the woman who could easily punch him six ways from Sunday back to the hospital. As much as he loved lazing around and hitting on the nurses particularly one shy Hyuuga, he would rather get on with another mission.

"Now, where was I… oh, right. As it is we are expecting a turn of event within the Kirigakure walls. Luckily for you, no matter how much this mission will tarnish our relationship, it will still be irrelevant. Keep your ears peeled, your eyes wide and your mouth shut," Tsunade said to Sasuke, Sai and finally, reproachfully, to Naruto who only scowled in offense.

"Well, there's no reason to keep you here anymore. I'll summon you in a few days for an upcoming mission. In the meantime, try not to get yourself killed," she sent them a knowing look; team 7 was notorious for their intense training sessions.

"Dismiss."

Once they were out of the door, Naruto immediately shouted his demands for some ramen. Sasuke scoffed and disappeared from sight without bothering to answer, effectively leaving Sai who was still unable to move fast due to his recovery to the mercy of Naruto's grumbling stomach. Within seconds, he found himself entering the large gates bearing a red and white fan insignia. Several dark haired children were running around with broken twigs hitting each other, pretending that it was a kunai and playing ninja. The mothers were having amiable chats and gossiping about the latest Uchiha scandal while several other clansmen just moved about with their daily routine. It was an average day in the Uchiha compound.

Sasuke's measured steps reached the largest Uchiha household and he slipped in quietly. The noise of his mother's wooden spatula scratching against the wok turning over the sizzling food and her soft humming reached his ears. Once he entered the kitchen he announced a silent, "I'm home, Haha-ue."

A loud clatter and a soft screech invited him to raise one of his brow. His mother turned around and loudly grumbled as she threw him an annoyed look.

"Sasuke! What were you thinking sneaking around like that! Didn't I tell you to make some noise when you come in the last time?" The woman with pretty long dark hair huffed as she bent down to retrieve her spatula.

Sasuke merely nodded and went to the fridge to get something cool to drink. "Honestly, you're just like Itachi," he heard her mother complained. Sasuke idly wondered why she was always complaining about the both of them moving so soundlessly around the house. She was once a kunoichi after all so she would've noticed his silent entrance earlier and the many ones before that. But then again, she had been a devout mother for a very long time. Sasuke inwardly shrugged. He was hungry and he wanted something to eat.

"Lunch is almost ready," she told him as he glanced over her shoulder to see what the menu for the day was. "Go and help me set up the table," she ordered busily to which Sasuke silently obeyed.

A few minutes later, Itachi and Fugaku appeared. Sasuke greeted his father and brother and they took a seat. Lunch was an affair of comfortable silence and it wasn't when everyone was finally finished with their meals did someone finally say something. Sasuke stood up to help his mother with the dishes but Fugaku suddenly spoke, leaving his mother to clear everything away and serve tea by herself.

"I heard your team was unable to acquire the scroll," his strict, no-nonsense voice called out. Sasuke paused halfway up and slowly, with clear hesitance, sunk into his seat again.

"Yes, Chichi-ue," Sasuke admitted and glanced sideways at Itachi who was calmly sipping his tea. Sasuke inwardly grimaced. He knew what was coming.

"Was it a particularly hard mission?" The head of clan asked, gazing at him sharply but somehow his face retained his mask of indifference.

It was an ANBU operation so he could not disclosed any information to his father, not that he didn't know already. However, from Sasuke's silence alone, Fugaku was able to get an answer.

"I see."

Again, Sasuke glanced at Itachi as a ripple of annoyance surged through him. Without looking at his stern father, he knew that the oldest Uchiha in the room was already comparing him with his seemingly perfect brother.

"I expected better from you, Sasuke," Fugaku said as he lifted his cup of tea to his lips.

"I will improve myself, Chichi-ue," he promised.

"Oh, Fugaku. Sasuke is already in ANBU. Don't pressure him too much," Mikoto sighed as she came back into the room wiping her hands on her apron after the dishes in the sink was done.

"He is still far behind. Itachi was already a captain by 13."

Sasuke winced at the obvious jab on his capabilities as a shinobi by Fugaku. It wasn't a secret on how much disappointed the clan leader was at his youngest son's slow progress. Sasuke had to endure his disappointed looks and disparaging remarks throughout the years just because he was slightly slower and a little lesser in terms of everything compared to Itachi. Sasuke kept silent as Mikoto chastised her husband for his little confidence in his youngest son.

"Sasuke has already reached this far and he's doing so well. Would it hurt you if you just praise him a little?" Mikoto argued gently. She knew Fugaku would only respond harsher if she raised her voice.

"Hn. What he needs is more training."

"Fugaku-"

"He has responsibilities as an Uchiha. Do I need to remind him that every time he fails?"

"Fugaku!"

"Enough, Mikoto."

Well aware that his words were law, Fugaku stood up and left the room leaving a sombre Sasuke, a silent Itachi and an upset Mikoto behind. The woman turned to Sasuke and regarded her son with worried eyes. She knew Sasuke reacts adversely whenever this happens.

"Sasuke, honey..." she called out gently and reached for his hand on his lap. Sasuke allowed her smooth touch to run over his fist. Strange, he didn't remember clenching it so tightly in the first place.

"You know your father only wants the best for you right?" Mikoto gently said, looking at him with beautiful and concerned dark eyes.

"I'm going to train," he announced brusquely and left the room without a spare glance.

Mikoto frowned and sighed. When she saw Itachi slowly moving to leave, she said,

"Please take care of your little brother, Itachi."

Itachi inclined his head silently and excused himself from the dining room leaving the mother to wonder how both of her children will fair under their father's strict administration. While she understands that it was for the benefit of the clan, they were still her babies regardless of their high status in the shinobi hierarchy. Sasuke was only 18 while his brother only five years older. It was bad enough that their childhood was ripped away from them but they were also forced since young age the responsibilities typically shouldered by grown men. But it was worse because she could do nothing but watch quietly from behind her authoritarian husband.

There was almost nothing she could and dared to do. She was raised as an Uchiha matriarch but that was all for show. Her value meant very little in the clan except for her worth as an exceptional mother and wife for her family. Mikoto was once an excellent kunoichi but she had laid down her career and submitted to marriage and ever since, she had very little to control although she admits that she had never regretted any of it. She loved her two boys and her husband so much that she was glad she gave up everything in the first place. If needed, she would've given up even more and lain her life for them. However, it just saddened her that there was very little she can do for her children. She could try to extend her soft caresses and soothing words but they grew more detached and disinterested as they progress further into their careers, becoming more and more the embodiment of the ideal Uchiha the patriarch had trained them to be. Although her heart ache, she was often reminded that as Lady Uchiha, she was forced to accept the fact that her children were raised patriarchs and cold warriors.

She could only offer silent encouragements and pray that they lead a safe life.

* * *

"Let us call it a day," Itachi announced as he moved in front of Sasuke who was breathing hard and sweating profusely despite the cooling temperature of the late evening.

While Sasuke looked as if he had been fighting a group of strong shinobi, Itachi was standing rather calmly, looking very much like he had just taken a walk in the park. Sasuke cursed inwardly for the minimal effort Itachi had exerted during their sparring session. Itachi and Sasuke were not far in terms of skills but Itachi, having far more experience and longer training, had long since learned the art of endurance and perfect control.

However, upon closer inspection, Sasuke could see the damage he had inflicted towards the elder Uchiha, his irregular breathing and the wet training clothes sticking to his body like second skin. He also noticed how Itachi barely hid his small wincing as he moved towards Sasuke. He had dealt a good blow towards his older brother and he was oddly satisfied. Itachi, contrary to popular belief, wasn't as invincible as he was made out to be.

Itachi extended a hand towards Sasuke which the latter silently accepted. Now, they were walking back towards the Uchiha compound. The walk was silent. Sasuke stared straight ahead, hands in his pocket passing homes and lighted street shops.

"How are you?" Itachi suddenly asked.

Sasuke briefly answered with a grunt. When he glanced sideways, he saw that Itachi's face was as impassive as ever but there was a curious tug on the corner of his lips.

"What?" He asked, slightly perturbed by his brother's expression.

"You have improved," he explained.

"Aa."

"How's… life?" Sasuke scoffed at Itachi's attempt in drawing him into a nonsensical conversation. But he rarely sees Itachi nowadays so he decided to humour his older brother.

"Fine, I guess."

"Ino-san was looking for you."

Sasuke openly scowled at his brother. He made a mental note to never converse with Itachi about topics of no relation to their career ever again. The older male always had a penchant for Sasuke's love life, or lack thereof.

"She's pathetic," he replied gruffly.

"I think she is a nice girl. Really… ah, persistent," Itachi commented airily remembering the years the blonde had chased after Sasuke and leaving bouquets of flowers and boxes of chocolates faithfully in front of their doorsteps which always ended up in the trash, thanks to Sasuke's lack of appreciation.

"Tch. Enough, Nii-san," Sasuke scowled, clearly loathing the Yamanaka and her obsession.

"Sasuke."

"What?"

"Chichi-ue was just worried about you."

Sasuke abruptly stopped and stared at his brother who also stopped to regard him, his expression concerned; as concerned as his emotionless brother could ever get.

"…I doubt that."

"He may seem stern and uncaring, but he is still our father."

Sasuke looked away.

As leader of the Uchiha clan, Fugaku was focused on the clan's interest and welfare and had a strong sense of responsibility which was why he seemed hateful and non-negotiable. As Itachi was his successor as head of the clan, Fugaku spent much of his time focusing on the development of his eldest and little time with his youngest. Sasuke trained constantly in order to get his father's attention and approval. The Uchiha patriarch was only ever impressed by great feats and rarely praises anyone due to his high expectations. But because he was Sasuke and Itachi was far superior to him, he could barely impress the head of the clan. This resented Sasuke so much. He grew up without his father's consent and vie for his attention only to be shrugged away like a useless fly without fail every time. How could he believe that his father cares about him if all his attention was shifted towards Itachi?

"He only sees you," Sasuke bitted out a reply, hating how he could hear the venom of jealousy lacing his words.

"But he worries about you more," Itachi claimed silently.

"Hn."

Sasuke stuffed his hands deep inside his pockets and continued walking, his footsteps hastier. _Itachi doesn't know what he's talking about_, Sasuke thought irately.

"Stop being foolish, Sasuke."

"Who is being foolish, Nii-san? Father cares about you. You are the heir."

There was silence for the briefest moment, Sasuke wondered if he was pushing the limits of this conversation. He knew that it was a sensitive subject between the two of them, regardless of their unvoiced understanding of the matter.

"Do you want to be the heir?" Sasuke stopped dead in his tracks once again and so did Itachi but this time, he didn't turn to look at him.

"What are you talking about?" He asked, slightly apprehensive with his brother's sudden question.

"If you want to be the heir..."

"Stop messing around, Nii-san," Sasuke interrupted harshly before he could finish the sentence.

Was Itachi insane?

For the second child to be the heir, death or something equally horrific had to happen to the oldest son. Whatever he was thinking, it was a stupid thought. Sasuke was envious of Itachi but not because he was born the second child. Maybe once or twice, or perhaps a thousand times, he had mourned his late birth but once he realized that this was not meant to be and that this was not his fate (as one Hyuuga Neji had once eloquently put it), he began to accept and learn to support his brother. He grew content with what he had, and understood that no matter how much he wanted it he would never dare to take away what was rightfully Itachi's. If only his father had paid him more attention though. Regardless, he can never see himself as the heir. Itachi was better suited, more capable. That was a given.

Sasuke took careful steps towards Itachi. When he reached the older Uchiha, he could see the teasing smirk on his face. For a second there, he thought Itachi was being serious but it turns out the elder Uchiha was merely pulling his strings. He knew his older brother whose face itself was a mask of impassivity could not and would never take this matter lightly, even with his younger brother. Itachi was selfless and devout to the clan. He had long resigned himself to the mercy of the clan elders' stony grasps and would serve the clan loyally and resolutely until his death. He would never give up his position and the vicious responsibilities that it came with to another. It was his curse to bear.

"Don't say that ever again," Sasuke muttered warningly.

"Of course," Itachi promised half-heartedly.

Sasuke glanced at Itachi and couldn't help but wonder if the man was ready. Of course he was. It was only a matter of time before he was declared the head of the clan and take over father's spot in the council although the latter might take more years. However, there were certain rules that he had to meet before the title was handed over to him. As far as Sasuke knew Itachi had practically met every requirements there were except one.

"Nii-san, have you found a candidate bride?"

Itachi stilled and shook his head. "It is still too early, Sasuke."

Uchiha Itachi rarely shows emotions but around Sasuke, he was slightly more liberal. Even so, irritation and anger hardly ever surfaced on his features. There was a small tug downwards on the older Uchiha's thin lips and a black storm seemed to roll across his visage. For a while there, Sasuke wondered if he had just signed a death contract.

"There are far more pressing matters to attend to. The Akatsuki, for example," Itachi continued smoothly despite the bitter undertone in his voice.

"What of them?" As much as he was interested with what his older brother was planning for his future, the slight mention of the red cloud organization had managed to grab Sasuke's undivided attention. It was well known that one member of the organization was obsessed with the Uchiha brothers for their talents.

Itachi's jaws clenched remembering the time one snake-like shinobi had stolen the younger of the two. It had awoken the Mangekyō stage of his Sharingan and the strain it had caused within Sasuke, the hallucination and mind games that damned snake had put Sasuke through had awoken his Mangekyō as well. Itachi remembered asking Sasuke what the Akatsuki member had done to Sasuke for him to prompt the eye power but Sasuke refused to divulge the answer but Itachi knew he must've seen deaths upon deaths of his loved ones in whatever illusion that snake had forced unto him.

"The Akatsuki has grown to immeasurable lengths," he glanced to Sasuke to see him nodding; he was well aware of the Akatsuki's elaborated schemes involving the tailed beasts.

"It is time that we put a stop to their atrocities," he said gravely.

"I agree. What leads do you have on them?" Sasuke asked silently, wary if the wind might pick up their conversation.

"There are rumours surrounding their involvement with Kirigakure," Itachi replied just as silent, barely audible.

Sasuke nodded again. Kirigakure was in possession of two tailed beasts, one within their Mizukage and another in a yet unidentified shinobi. After Iwagakure and Takigakure, it was expected for the organization to go after the next hidden villages in possession of the beasts. They probably chose not to head to Konoha and Suna because of the recent strong alliance the two countries had just established. Kirigakure meanwhile was in a precarious situation and had been for a very long time. If not for the iron fist ruling of Yagura, the village would've long torn asunder. However, the same iron fist control was proving difficult for Konoha to extend their influence towards the Water country.

"My sources warned me that another revolt might be taking place in the near future."

"How near?"

"Soon."

"And how does this relates to the Akatsuki, exactly?" Sasuke asked his brother, unable to comprehend.

"It is far too open here to discuss this matter elaborately."

"Home, then."

Itachi was then suddenly gone. Sasuke scowled and created hand seals for a teleportation jutsu and appeared inside a dark room with soundproofed walls. A second after he teleported into the room which was more of a spacious basement really, the candles that lined the walls suddenly lighted up to reveal a circular table with seats that looked unnecessarily regal for such a bleak space. There were small holes in the walls that channelled air from outside into the underground room beneath the main Uchiha household serving as one of the many secret meeting places in the clan's compound. Itachi was seated calmly in one of the seats, nursing his calf that was injured in his spar with Sasuke. The elder Uchiha nodded towards the medical kit and Sasuke went towards it to tend to his injuries as well.

"The Akatsuki, Nii-san," Sasuke reminded.

"Yes," Itachi nodded, "Should the revolt succeed, the tailed beast would have to be confined in another vessel lest they want it to roam freely for the Akatsuki to capture. While we are unable to do anything in regards to this matter, we have means to influence the revolt in order to execute Yagura and permanently enforce diplomatic sanctions with the Water country."

Itachi paused, as he calmly tied the bandage strip around his calf. Sasuke waited patiently for him. A little while later, Itachi finished attending to his injuries and leaned back into his seat, putting an arm on the table.

"However, there are speculations that Akatsuki had already planted a man inside the hidden village, monitoring the village and country for benefices and enforcing control, making things more complex than it already is."

"How?" Sasuke asked with a lift of his brow, wiping his cuts with alcohol wipes and slapping on an ointment on it after.

Itachi shook his head clearly dissatisfied with something.

"My sources are unwilling to divulge this particular information. They intend to handle this coup delicately and stated that certain information are not meant to be shared, even when we had extended our full cooperation and trust."

Sasuke snorted, "Of course."

"Like Kage, like shinobi. Wouldn't you agree?" Itachi smirked.

"You don't see me throwing empty sake bottles at people, do you?" Sasuke scoffed to which Itachi gave a light chuckle. Sasuke smirked, it was hard to elicit a laughter from his ever stoic brother and it gave him a sense of pride to be able to prompt such a reaction from him.

"Withholding information like that only attests that Akatsuki is indeed inside Kirigakure. Perhaps, the Akatsuki is overseeing the political domain hence their refusal to let us in?" Sasuke alleged.

Itachi stared at Sasuke. His brother was young and yet, he understood the complexity of the situation quite easily and were able to deduce exactly what Itachi himself had inferred. It was beginning to dawn on him that Sasuke would grow to become a formidable opponent, strength wise and intelligence wise to everyone, even to him. Itachi was impressed with Sasuke's immense development and wondered why their father refuses to commend the younger Uchiha for it. Had it been himself stating such observation towards his father, the head of clan would puff his chest out and nodded approvingly.

However, Itachi knew that despite their father's lack of gratification expressed towards Sasuke, he loves his youngest child. Perhaps, even more so than Itachi whom he had treated like a double-ended sword for years. He was useful and effective but he was also very dangerous. Itachi was also a devout Uchiha. Fugaku clearly see how more willing Itachi was to tie himself to the pillars that made up the Uchiha clan while in Sasuke he saw a restless hawk, waiting for the shackles to become undone so that he could fly away into freedom. It was only ironic that the shackles bound to Sasuke was the very same shackles Itachi had bounded himself into.

"Indeed. That is a very plausible inference, Sasuke," Itachi praised, and Sasuke smirked.

"So what is our move?"

"We wait. There is not much we can do until they decide when we can get involved."

Sasuke nodded, "Of course. To gain their trust we must let them take the lead."

"We can, without a doubt, push them towards a certain angle. If they permit," Itachi supplied but added, "However, considering how Yagura had carried a genocide to those who last attempted a revolt, we will have to let them decide what course they deem the best. They know how their inside works and we can provide the necessary aid."

They had been waiting for this to happen for quite some time. The bloody country was known for their impressive amount of coup d'états attempts. This time however, for the best interest of both countries, Konoha had decided to lend a silent helping hand and the Kiri rebels were growing desperate enough to accept. From what Sasuke had last gathered, the rebel group had only begun planning to overthrow Yagura and it would take a fair amount of time of careful planning and to manoeuvre discretely under the Mizukage's (and possibly the Akatsuki's) watchful eyes. Once they do start, Konoha would make sure to lend their forces. Despite their bitter rivalry, intense hatred and mutual disgust, it was finally time.

"Konoha would divert the attention from the group by constantly pushing Yagura with peace proposals. Of course this proposals will stand forever, to Yagura and his future replacement," Itachi said.

Sasuke nodded. They continued on for half an hour until the matter was thoroughly discussed between the two brothers. After, they contented themselves with comfortable silence. Itachi made tea at the small kitchenette inside the underground room and both shared a rare moment of relaxation.

While Itachi was occupied with his thoughts, Sasuke had begun to remember the Water scroll mission yet again. However, he wasn't bothered about its failure but was rather curious about the remaining kunoichi who had luckily survived with her teammate in tow. Again, he thought about her but not in a way that a man thinks about a woman. It was rather more like a shinobi thinking about another shinobi. Maybe he had remembered how seemingly fit she was when pressed against his body, how her small and slim figure seemed to aligned against his lean but bigger form like a fitting jigsaw puzzle and how her appearance was just so unusual he couldn't help but feel it incised into his memory. But he was more curious about the uncanny similarity in terms of her fighting style with Tsunade.

"Nii-san, has Tsunade ever taken an apprentice before? Other than Shizune," he suddenly asked.

"Not that I know of," Itachi answered, ignoring Sasuke's lack of propriety in addressing the Hokage – and almost everyone for that matter. "Why?"

"There is a kunoichi that I fought with," Itachi seemed to perk up, and very slightly that it went unnoticed by Sasuke, "and her techniques are so similar to Tsunade. Though the style is different."

"A kunoichi?"

"Except having pure monstrous strength, she incorporates chakra in order to enhance it."

"And this kunoichi has a name, of course?"

Sasuke immediately growled and turned narrowed dark eyes towards Itachi who only blinked innocently in response.

"I am not romantically interested in her. She merely holds my curiosity."

"I have heard that romance begins with curiosity," Itachi commented.

"And so does a mangled body and a broken neck," Sasuke snapped.

"At ease, little brother. I merely inquest an identity. Perhaps I know her, or at least, have heard of her," Itachi pacified the bristling younger man.

"She is from Kirigakure," and as an afterthought he added, "She is called Sakura."

"I see… is she by any chance the exact same kunoichi that had ran off with the scroll?"

Sasuke scowled but nodded nevertheless. Itachi hid his smirk behind his cup of tea. Sasuke was rarely attracted towards another shinobi unless they had given him a fair beating and the knowledge of a kunoichi with such a delicate name escaping Sasuke's wrath and perhaps had even injured his male pride was just priceless. This Sakura could've been a severely muscular and frighteningly large woman for all he knew but it's the thought that counts.

"I might have heard of her but without a last name, I'm afraid I cannot help you."

Sasuke did not miss the intonation Itachi had applied and heatedly replied, "Help me? I was only asking if you – never mind."

Sasuke glowered as he stood up to leave, infuriated with his brother who should be more interested with his own love life. Not that this was what he would remotely consider as a love life of course. He just wanted to know if Tsunade had ever taught someone her arts. And how could his brother even suggest that he pursue someone outside Konoha, and from Kirigakure no less!

"Tsunade-sama has travelled before. Perhaps she had handed down some of her knowledge then? Shizune-san is the only official apprentice of hers that I know of," Itachi told Sasuke, discreetly trying to get Sasuke sit back and not leave. He was due to leave for a 3 months mission in a day's time after all and he intend to spend the rest of his time in Konoha with his little brother.

Sasuke paused and fell back into his seat, a contemplative look on his face.

"There is a chance, very minimal no doubt that I have come across her. Perhaps if you describe her, I could help?"

"I do not intend to find her and seek love behind Konoha walls. I know Kakashi gave you his stupid books to give you enough of stupid ideas," Sasuke hissed.

Itachi stared at him unabashed. Taking a deep breath and then letting out a sigh, he told the elder Uchiha anyways. Perhaps, he has information on this kunoichi he had so stupidly mistaking Sasuke for having a liking on.

"Pink hair, green eyes and around 5ft 3in," Sasuke refused to describe her physical body as it would suggest that he had been paying more than enough attention towards the female. Even then, Sasuke still died a little when amusement swam in his brother's otherwise vague eyes. To his credit, however, he shook his head and told Sasuke with no jest in his voice that he had never encountered a kunoichi like her.

"It is possible for ninja to have similar abilities, technique and styles," Itachi told him, "It is not possible that it is perhaps just a mere coincidence that her technique shares similarities with Tsunade-sama."

"I know," Sasuke said, "It's just not common for a Kiri shinobi to fight in that manner," he told Itachi.

In his experiences, Kiri shinobi tend to fight with speed and fast movements to accommodate the Kenjutsu style of fighting the country is famous for. They would also be more heavily built, even the kunoichi, to handle swords of different sizes although he knew they favour large swords, like her teammate, the dead one. That was why Sasuke was intrigued. The way she fights and moves piqued his curiosity. He had had women beneath him before and had felt them struggle against him but there was something different, something unexplainable with the way she counters his every movement with annoyance, the way she charges at him with anger, the way she left so abruptly as she came.

There were nothing else that could possibly have the strange kunoichi to run on his mind. From the small fists to the short heeled boots, the cracked earth to the fallen trees; it was a style of fighting that resembled Tsunade's but differs so greatly that he could distinguish it as her own. She stomps and pummels and causes the terra firma to shake dangerously it was hardly feminine. She wasn't delicate but she was small, in a sense that he towers over her and how she looked like she could use a few more pounds on her but Sasuke knew, if she was removed from the brutal setting and replaced her face with a softer expression, he could've easily overlooked her as a mere civilian but would linger on her for a second longer because of the shocking pink hair. She couldn't stand in a crowd without being targeted.

And frankly, he was curious.

But just by the fact that she had a different style of fighting than he expected and the misconception over her appearance, of course. Just her fighting skills. How she punches and kicks. How she moved blithely but slow enough for him to counter her deathly attacks. Definitely, because she fights differently. No big sword, no fancy ninjutsu or any visible bloodline limit. Just fists and chakra. Yes, the way she fights.

Sasuke scowled harder when Itachi smirked.

* * *

**Author's Note: **

_1) S-ranked missions, for me, are missions that handles delicate problems that will have direct impact with politics, economy and to some extent, social stuff of a country/hidden village. Assassination of a daimyo/hokage, stealing information that could ruin the country/hidden village etc are some examples. Unranked mission are those no one would ever know the reason and cause, like the Uchiha Massacre in canon would be one I would consider as unranked since Itachi had to defect afterwards to give no evidence of Konoha's involvement. It's generally an unethical mission, the most unethical thing you can ever imagine being done and times that by ten. _

_2) Speaking of Itachi, a bit OOC? I think he'd be friendlier now that he's less screwed up. Sasuke is still broody and gloomy because of yeah... competition? his dad? I would think so._

_3) Bromance. Cute._

_Have a nice day!_


	6. Chapter 6

**Sakura: Pink hair, green eyes.**

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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**Author's Note:** _Hey, did I miss an update of this story last week? All I remember was working on another one of my story called "Only Learned the Bad Things". I just published the last of the 2 chaptered story yesterday too. So check it out if you have the time. _**_  
_**

_Okay, so some of you felt bad for Ryo and even began to like him. I felt really bad for killing him off so I added the scene down below so that I can err, pay respect to him (?) and tell what happened to Kotaro and to establish that Yagura is a __bad _mean evil person AND to expand the plot! Yay! Oh, and it's funny how I only get 1 review from the last chapter! Does that mean that I shouldn't show Sasuke's side of the story anymore? Cuz it's not interesting? Lol. 

_Anyway, here's chapter 6 guys. (^_^)_

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**Chapter 6**

The air was still and heavy, and the sky was covered with a blanket of darkness. The meagre moonlight filtered through the dusty window blinds into a dark quiet room. Sakura sat on the unfamiliar bed with a sense of inescapable dread and deep self-loathing. Her eyes burned but no tears came out, as if it had dried a long time ago. Her chest hurts but curiously there was no banging, no erratic thumping that caused it. The bed was hard, the floor creaked and the walls were so thin, cold air seeped through. There were dirty cups and plates on the floor and a pile of dirty laundry at the corner of the room. She didn't know this place, this was the first time she's ever visited it as the owner, the late owner, would have never tolerated her presence in his territory.

She clung romantically the image of herself leaving the dead room but she was too numb with cold and grief, and she didn't even know why. The room was lonely and the apartment was empty of life. She noticed that she was holding on to a dusty picture of three children, standing rigidly with grave and haunted faces. The picture was tattered and slightly torn and the colour was faded, the corner blotched up by a stain that looked suspiciously like dried blood but the image was still fine. They had won the small war, and had been promoted. This was a commemorative picture of their survival and she had found it pinned to the wall with a senbon, naturally lodged in the middle of her wide forehead. She didn't understand why he had kept it. Kotaro had burned his copy in front of them and she had unregrettably lost hers years ago but Ryo… he had kept it.

Sakura breathed in deeply, looking down at the picture. She felt her hands shaking slightly but she ignored it. She never broke apart anymore so she tried so hard to remain frigid and still, emotionless. What was going on? It was a strange feeling. To be dead while still breathing. She wondered how long she had been here. It was still dark. Mist blanketed the village snugly and she felt oddly suffocated.

She sneaked into this room in the dead of night without a purpose. She didn't come here because her body commanded for it nor had it been unconsciously. She just came. Now she was regretting her decision, because her visit led her to question herself. Had she been a bad comrade? She let him die and she did it knowingly and felt guiltlessly. She knew he wouldn't survive but she let him have his way and as consequences, he ceased to exist. He had sacrificed his life for her. A voice in the back of her mind argued that he was probably looking out for the scroll rather than her safety but she refused to believe it. In his memory, she wanted to remember it as one act of kindness he had permitted.

As for Kotaro, there was no helping him. Sakura tried, she really did. It was still a two hours journey before reaching to Kirigakure and Sakura suddenly thought of giving a chance to her teammate to run, if he wanted to. She would warn him of course that she would be sent out to hunt him down later anyway but she thought it would've given him a fair advantage. If he wanted a new life, Sakura would allow him a good head start. Sakura had placed him down on the ground and was about to nudge him awake when they were spotted by the border patrols. They shot her careful stares, suspicious of her and the bounded Kirigakure shinobi, and warned her from doing any funny businesses by pointing deathly sharp blades into her face. From then on, she had to abandon her treacherous thoughts and explained to the patrols about the offense her teammate had committed. One of them then accompanied her all the way back.

She handed in the scroll to Yagura and reported everything truthfully. She was dismissed and was allowed to go home wondering her teammate's fate. A week later, she was summoned into the prisoner's cells where she found Kotaro's severely beaten half-conscious form leaning desperately against the wall with a very angry and ugly look upon his face. He cursed and spat at her. He called her mean things, as usual but the effect was dulled by his coughing and gasping from the blood blocking his throat and nose. She stood still. It was a while until she realized that Yagura had placed a sword into her hand and ordered her to kill Kotaro.

"A traitor's fate,"Yagura had told her.

She plunged the sword deep into her teammate's heart under the watchful gaze of her Mizukage.

She thought she didn't care but she was wrong. No matter how she looked at it, both of them had been a part of her life and influenced her in ways she couldn't understand. Throughout the years together, she was convinced that they shared no fond memories and it remained true, they didn't. There wasn't a single time that she's felt happy being with them. But it was a sense of having something and no longer having it around that made her feel disturbed. She also felt unnecessarily haunted by the restless spirits of her teammates.

It's been over a month now since the mission. She didn't feel anything before and had simply been too busy with her duties to notice much difference with them gone. To her, they were like visitors in her life, ones she knew that was going to go and had wanted to get rid of for a long time. She wondered if both of them had felt the same way, that they were each other's nuisances, the bane of each other's existence. She never confronted them and they had never spoken about it. They just ignored and put on faces of displeasure and trade harsh ridiculing words with each other. Only now had she truly knew what Kotaro had wanted.

For quite a time she thought she was fine… until tonight.

As Sakura stared deeply into the picture, it seemed to turn crimson. She saw blood splattered the young faces of the trio and sunk like poison into their skin. She could suddenly smell the blood and death around her and it made her sick. Although she was accustomed to the rusty metallic smell of blood, the decay and its putrid taste, still she felt like she was drowning in it. She took a deep breath and willed the traumatic experience away.

"We're alike… the three of us," Sakura whispered as she swept a speck of dust off of the picture with her finger.

They had no family, they were alone. They came out strong because they were forced to, because they had no choice. In a way, they were victims of circumstances. Memories resurfaced and she saw a miniature version of herself staring at a boy crying because he had killed his classmate, and another boy who was so loud and talkative suddenly became silent and depressed as the result of his first kill. Then she saw herself moving through dead bodies her teammates had slain. She saw Kotaro become mad, Ryo losing control and herself ending lives that were not hers to take. And for a while anger surged through her and burned heatedly like flames. Yagura orchestrated this all. He turned children against each other so that they learnt early on not to trust and how to kill. He made children taste the blood and encouraged them to swim in it, to bathe in it. He wanted their innocence lost and their life taken. He wanted exactly this!

Then slowly, with a sunken feeling, she realized that there was nothing she could do about it. That her anger was useless. She was as broken as she could ever be and she was far too weak to save the fates of others. She didn't have the power, the strength, and the strong belief that she could make a difference. She was an empty shell, a machine actually. She was, from the very beginning of her existence, a dispensable tool.

She closed her eyes and buried her face into her hands, dropping the picture onto the cold ground. For hours she was in that position, between falling asleep and being in a daze. She didn't know how to feel. She wasn't sad nor was she apathetic but she was so, so confused she was unable to feel appropriately. In the end, she was stuck with a lost numbing feeling, exhausted with her emotions.

The air was lighter and the darkness started to ease into morning. Sakura was still in the same position; drifting in an out of consciousness. She didn't look fragile or broken though she certainly felt like it and she was hunched over like she was worn and exhausted. It was almost mid-afternoon of the next day when she finally returned back to her own apartment.

* * *

Huff…thud… huff… thud!

Sakura grunted and breathed heavily as she delivered strong punches and kicks to the wooden dummy in the training field. The dummy was splintered severely from heavy beating and looked about to break at any given moment even though it was once a serious affair of hard wood. In the distance, the landscape was completely destroyed thanks to her chakra control and release exercises. She knew tomorrow a messenger would come to her with a warning regarding the destroyed training ground but she didn't care. She needed to keep up with her training and if the grounds had to be mutilated in the process so be it. Yesterday had been emotionally exhausting and Sakura was adamant in pulling herself out of it now that she needed to focus on her ever piling missions and work. Both of her teammates would be rolling in their graves if they knew she was actually grieving over them.

About an hour later, the pink haired kunoichi was forced to slow down as her body began to feel the strain from the continuous force she exerted. She didn't want to stop her taijutsu training but her body was ready to collapse at any given moment now. She finally relented and gave the dummy one last kick that severed its head, causing it to roll away.

Plopping down, she grabbed the small cloth she brought with her and wiped the perspiration off her forehead and neck. She then downed an entire bottle of water and wiped the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand. This prompted Sakura to take off her glove and stare at it; it was the hand she used to kill Kotaro and countless of others. It was smooth and soft, just like its conspiring twin. Her hands were always smooth like that of a maiden thanks to the ceaseless amount of medical chakra that flowed through them when she heals but it was dexterous in handling deathly weapons and just about anything she wants it to do.

She shook her head and threw herself back onto the mossy ground to stare at the sky with her arms spread wide. She couldn't see much since it was dark and obscured by a cloudy haze but Sakura enjoyed it nonetheless. She closed her eyes and spent an hour resting. She would've spent more if not for the fact that an intrusion of noises woke her up from the peaceful slumber she had drifted into. She remained fixed and relaxed on the ground but she immediately withdrew her chakra into her body and shrouded it from detection. It was a habit, even when there was probably no threat in her own home village, but not this time. Her cautiousness had rewarded her.

"They're waiting at the eastern border of the village," a voice whispered.

"What about the guards?" Another voice whispered back.

"They won't be there," the first voice replied.

_Is that so_, Sakura mused. She opened her eyes and realized that it was pitch black. She knew that she had stopped training very late into the night having started in the evening and judging by the darkness that surrounded her, she could only guess that it was close to midnight.

"Come on," the voice urged.

Sakura knew it wasn't directed towards her but she stood up anyway and followed them silently. She walked almost casually but maintained her body in the darkest shadows. She left all her training equipment in favour of following these suspicious people. She'll pick it up later, she thought. Whatever these two people (she saw as they moved into a spot where the moonlight shone) were planning, it was her duty to find out. Why wouldn't the guards be at their station? If there was a strong village border it would be those maintained by Yagura. He practically stationed ANBU on every perimeter of the village compared to other hidden villages that she knew only places Chuunin and fresh batches of Jounins at most on their village borders. That was why it was easy to infiltrate their village while those who even attempted to sneak into the Bloody Village of the Mist would find their heads staring curiously at their separated body before the brain promptly shuts down.

Sakura had patrolled the village's borders several times before and she knew the roster like the back of her hands. Okay, maybe not because these are ANBU we're talking about here. They operate with absolute secrecy and have no kinds of rosters, just direct commands by the Yondaime Mizukage. But she knew there should be men in the eastern border, there should always be men there and in other parts of the border as well. Sakura saw them stop and carefully scan the area as they reached the boundary. True to the suspicious figure, there was no ANBU in sight or hidden anywhere with the exception of herself. Sakura glared at the perimeter. This was extremely wrong. There was no one guarding this side of the village at this time? No ANBU, not even a Jounin? Were they taken out or were they collaborating with the two suspicious figures that was scaling up the tall barbed walls and jumping over it with no interference?

Sakura followed after them but when she landed she saw the figures ahead of her stopped abruptly. She slowly slinked into the shadows again and suppressed her chakra to fit with the nature. Not many ninja knows this but complete suppression of chakra are more traceable than camouflaged chakra. If someone was to scan an area in the nature and spot a completely blank spot, they would most probably find a ninja there. It was like seeing a sheet of black and having this one blank spot appearing in front of where the supposed black should be.

"Did you hear that?" One of them hissed.

Sakura strained her ears. Nope, she didn't hear anything. And his partner felt the same way.

"I swear we're being followed," he said mutedly.

"But I can't sense anyone," his partner whispered.

Sakura saw a tall, lanky man step out into the moonlight searching the perimeter with his shorter companion right beside him. His eyes overlooked her hidden form and he shook his head after failing to find anything. It was too dark for him to see her perfectly hidden form.

"Probably just some stupid animal," he muttered, "Come on, they're waiting."

* * *

Sakura was on a rooftop, lying as still as a corpse and was as silent as death. Her eyes were wide opened and a shocked expression was upon her face. She was in the middle of nowhere, quite far from the village. And right in that middle of nowhere was a hideout of rebels. It was carefully hidden but wasn't as massive and elaborated as many rebel hideouts she'd seen. In fact, the 'hideout' was a simple abandoned cottage surrounded by mosses and water country's variations of ferns. But the group beneath her was certainly more than the cottage and what they were discussing could lead them straight to their death beds.

"Konoha sent a team to steal the Water Scroll about a month ago. However, they were unsuccessful and was revealed by our team of Jounin led by an ANBU."

Sakura gulped, the no-nonsense voice didn't sound so happy by that. Cold dread coursed through her body as she realized the discussion was about the events that she had catalysed towards the rebel group's plan.

"As consequences, the Mizukage had drilled all Kiri shinobi into countless of missions, trainings and gathering of armament in preparation for a possible war. Konoha is now in a worse position than they had been. Their involvement…"

Indeed, what else could the inexorable rise of work assigned to them meant if not to wage a war against the hidden leaf? This wasn't exactly shocking news to Sakura since she was completely prepared for another meaningless but big scale war that their Mizukage was currently pushing them into. He had finally begun to take serious of the offense against the armistice when previously, he would've just grimaced and sweep the trouble under the rug while Konoha pretended to be blind, deaf and mute. Now, armies were deployed, resources gathered and distributed and the village was on high alert. Considering the situation, Sakura was incredibly surprised by how this clandestine meeting can even take place and how it managed to fly under the radar.

Sakura listened with rapt attention and hidden horror as they discussed the possibility of war against Konoha. At first glance, she would've thought that the discussion was for the benefit of Yagura but as they delved deeper into it, talking about the stricter measures that it was beginning to become impossible for them to operate, the pink-haired nin realized that they were more talking about their obscure plans for the overthrow of the tyrant Yondaime Mizukage. She heard some of them suggesting that they allow Konoha to attack and to take over after the whole war business was done and she heard another argued that they would lose unnecessary manpower by that plan. She then heard about the permanent peace contract Konoha had offered in opposed of war that their Mizukage was adamant in having.

"The ANBU captains, the Mizukage and us elders met up several nights ago and had a thorough discussion about this," Sakura heard a very old voice rasp out. He coughed a bit before proceeding, "Unfortunately, the Mizukage are in opposition of this offer compared to the majority. He is set to proceed into the battlefield much to our dismay."

Sakura blinked. Wasn't peace a good way to settle this long term war? Even when it was obvious that the two hidden village held deep grudges towards each other caused by their heavily conflicted history but many had thought that it was time that the two villages finally move on and settle this estrangement. However, Yagura was known for his trust issues so it would only be natural for him to suspect hidden intentions beneath every actions his enemies take. It was bad enough that almost everyone, even those outside the country was looking forward for his downfall. It was understandable why he was rushing the village into war. It was a way for him to keep his clutches strong. If Kirigakure wins then Yagura would become an undefeatable foe and if he loses, the country and village would be too weak to deny him, and they weren't even able to deny him now when everyone was at the peak of their strengths. It was a no win situation for everyone and Yagura would continue his reign as the invincible Mizukage.

But did she really want that?

Sakura clenched her jaws tightly. She had, for a very long time, questioned the Mizukage for his tyranny. However, she had never wanted to think him any lesser than a hero, a wonderful leader. His methods had always worked hadn't they? Kirigakure is still standing, right? Despite the large amount of blood spilt, the harsh rules and policies he governed and the secure and oppressive control of the country, Kirigakure had still won every battle and wasn't that enough to warrant how his leadership can actually bring the village somewhere?

_You're a fool, Sakura. Even a blind man can see that he's no good. _

Thinking back about how she had lived her life with pain and turbulence, how her fate was shared by many, Sakura forced her eyes to see the maniacal side of her cherished Mizukage. She knew that deep inside her heart, she hated Yagura. She hated how easily he can influence and bend people to his will. She hated how he was merciless and unforgiving. She hated how death follows his commands. Her resentment over his control on the village and country was forever growing but she was a dutiful and loyal kunoichi. As much as she wanted him down and away, she had pronounced her oath towards the village and until Yagura step down, she was his.

Sakura shifted her head to the side as rows of murmurs seeped through the delicate roof. She was so glad that it was strong enough to support her weight but thin enough to allow her to hear the contents of the discussion below. There were guards near the perimeter but Sakura had cloaked herself in a genjutsu so that they would overlook her and so far, it was holding well as she heard one of them unsuspectingly walked pass the old dinky building and into the darkness of the forest.

"Is Konoha informed?"

"They have heard rumours, no doubt. But we will send someone to notify them. They must be prepared. Their agent is waiting around point X as we speak."

Sakura have no idea where 'point X' is but it was obvious that this agent belonged to Konoha. So they've decided to seek aid from the mortal enemy of Yagura and his Kirigakure. Sakura understood of course that they would need outside help if they plan to completely overthrow Yagura. His influence inside the country was too strong. It was the reason why many previous coups had failed; because they lack the manpower and skills to destroy the iron control of the man in the country and village.

Yagura was hated but he had many followers. Sakura could see that by siding with Konoha, they can work to destroy his control from inside and out. Sakura didn't know just how big this rebellion group really was but judging from their ambitious plans, she wouldn't doubt that they have quite the number. As understandable and applaudable the idea was, it was still startling and Sakura stored that fact inside her mind carefully.

"We believe that his quick decision is clouded by his bitterness against Konoha. Konoha shall not know of this yet but _he_ is getting antsy. We can hear him through his façade. It is getting clearer day by day," another unknown old voice seeped through the rooftop.

Her pink eyebrows furrowed. What does he mean by that?

A masculine individual spoke out and his voice sounded so arrogant and forbidding that Sakura immediately recognized him. Sakura knew he was deeply involved in politics but she never knew he was involved with this group as well. He was clearly acting as a double agent. He was one of Yagura's most trusted man after all. Ao was an ANBU veteran who was known to be one of the few – if not the only – shinobi who had managed to steal the Hyuuga's prized possession. He was also clearly a very skilled combatant, as he was capable of surviving a fight with Shisui Uchiha, a feared shinobi who was regarded as a genius even amongst the Uchiha. His medical skills was astounding and she had had the honour of working with him a couple of times before.

"He disappears from time to time, leaving Yagura to work on the village on his own. My Byakugan was able to detect the fluctuation of interference in his chakra network," Ao informed and she could imagine him standing upright with his chest puffed out looking down his crooked nose at almost everyone in the room.

_Is he saying that Yagura's under the influence of someone? Who?!_ Sakura thought in shock as she strained her ears.

"That bastard. I will not allow him to puppet Yagura just so that he could rule this village!" A voice shouted, slamming his hand angrily on a table.

"Yagura may not be conscious of his actions," Chojuro pointed out quietly. Sakura recognized that shy and silent way of talking and the chakra signature she detected followed by the vision of a large sword propped near his body she saw through the cracks of the brittle roof proved that this was indeed one of the remaining Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.

"He is conscious. When the presence is absent, he makes his own decision and he plays the same cards as _he_ plays. Both are devils," said Ao with an acrimonious tone.

She then heard a very womanly laugh. "It always hurts my heart to kill such a cute looking man… but he's going to have to die," and a second later she added solemnly, "I'll make sure both of them die. This village has suffered for long enough."

"It is not easy to defeat him. If he had managed to hide behind Yagura under detection for so long, then he would know about us and our purpose. We have to be cautious," the first old voice advised.

Sakura frowned. Her head was beginning to ache from all this confusion. Who is this other entity that seemed to manipulate the Mizukage? And those old voices referring themselves as the elders. Just how big and serious is this rebellion group? Who is leading them? A million of questions sped through her mind and Sakura began to find herself loathing her curiosity. If she hadn't followed those two stupid men, she wouldn't have ended up in this situation.

"But who is he? Who's the guy manipulating Yagura?" Sakura whispered in frustration to herself as the voices below her suddenly argued.

Sakura was so concerned about this mysterious guy she felt her heart pounding loudly against her chest in excitement and worry. He sounded powerful to be able to take over Yagura whom Sakura had revered as one of the strongest shinobi in existence but what exactly does he want with this village? Over the years, Kirigakure had won many lands, had grown a vast amount of militant power and they have quite the collection of rare materials looted from the lands they waged wars against. Even when the country was still poor and underdeveloped in most areas, it was undeniable that the country was in wealth militaristically – considering that the country was mainly established towards that focus. If he was after that then it would make perfect sense. Not to mention that if he was able to manipulate Yagura then she wouldn't doubt if he did it to control the beast within him.

"We must capture the Jinchūriki of Six-Tails at all cost. The Akatsuki has already their hands on the Four, Five and Seven-tails. With Yagura under his control, the Three-tails might just as well be theirs. We must not let the Six-Tail fall into his hands," the woman said gravely.

"What?!" Sakura nearly shouted as she hastily clamped her hand over her mouth but the damage was made.

The group beneath her stilled and before she could take her cue to leave, a sword smashed down in her direction. Sakura rolled away but the force from the sword made the roof collapsed and she fell downwards. Sakura twisted mid-air and landed in a cat's crouch. She promptly dived to the side as a barrel of molten lava suddenly threatened to engulf her. As she dodged the lava, her back ran into a hard wall of muscle and a pair of hand grabbed both of her upper arms tightly as the tip of a blade settled against her throat. Sakura stilled, knowing that if she moved the blade would cut through her jugular in an instant resulting to her death. It was an insanely stupid move on her part but there was no way to reverse it now. She didn't even dared to gulp but she steeled her gaze and stared directly into the sword owner's eyes. He gasped and stuttered but the sword didn't lower.

"S-Sakura-san!"

"Who is this?" The woman asked with an amused look.

The woman was tall and voluptuous and looked like she was in her late thirties though she looked younger. She has dark green eyes, and ankle-length auburn hair styled into a herringbone pattern at the back, a top-knot tied with a dark blue band and with bangs covering her right eye and trailing down to criss-cross over her partially exposed bust. She wears a long-sleeved, dark blue dress that falls just below the knees with a series of mesh armour underneath. She was extremely beautiful, Sakura couldn't help but thought.

"ANBU Sakura. The one who led the Jounin team on the Water Scroll mission," Ao grumbled behind her and then suddenly barked, "Come now, Chojuro. Man up! Such display of weakness is unbecoming for a ninja like you!"

Chojuro, an average height man with short, tufty blue hair, and dark eyes snapped his quivering gaze towards Ao and steeled it briefly so that he can finally look at Sakura through his black-rimmed glasses without trembling. Chojuro had served alongside Sakura in hunting missions before and had witnessed first-hand of her capabilities as a ferocious medic. For him to be intimidated by her was normal since he was more shy and easily shaken than many in the village. But Sakura reckoned he was more flustered with the fact that he had revealed her identity by mistake to the group. Names and faces weren't supposed to match when one was in ANBU and the fact that Sakura was not wearing a mask was putting her life in danger added by the fact that she was just caught spying by a potentially dangerous rebellion group.

However, Chojuro wasn't wearing his mask and judging by the absence of muffling that a voice should sound like beneath a mask that was coming from behind her, she guessed that Ao wasn't wearing his as well. In fact, no one was wearing any type of masks inside the still room and there were about 20 of them with the woman and Sakura being the only female.

_A tight knitted group,_ Sakura thought. If they trusted each other enough to reveal their identities then it meant this group was serious, dangerous and highly effective to have such level of confidence that no one would or could betray them. It's either that or the rebels were incredibly stupid but judging from the prominent figures in the room, she believed it was the former case.

The sword called Hiramekarei was still shoved against her throat and Sakura felt heavily unsettled by it.

"Mind putting that thing away?" Sakura asked while trying hard to hide her discomposure. Her sight shifted pointedly to the blade.

Chojuro glanced at the woman and Ao. He received a nod by the woman and he slowly pulled his sword away from her exposed neck while muttering his apologies but his stance didn't relish any form of relaxation. He was ready to pounce if she even so much moved a muscle.

"My, my. What are you doing here so late at night?"

Sakura stared at the smiling woman. Ao was still gripping her upper arms tightly and she wondered how long it would take before they finally turn blue.

"I followed them," Sakura said jutting her chin to the tall and short men sprawled on the ground staring wide eyed at the event unfolding before them.

"I see," the woman sighed and glanced at the two men.

"And how long have you been here?" She asked stepping towards her.

"Long enough," Sakura replied, her voice calm but her heart was hammering erratically within her chest. "Who are you?"

Sakura had never seen this auburn haired woman around the village before and it piqued her curiosity how all the men in the room seemed to revolve around her. It was subtle but she could see it. Chojuro kept glancing at the woman for instructions, body stiff and ready to jump with a single nod and Ao was acting like some sort of a bodyguard, and an arrogant one at that. The elders meanwhile were staring at her apprehensively. But the woman was smiling as if they were all good friends at a bar.

"You spoke of the Akatsuki. What is their involvement with Mizukage-sama?" Sakura asked cutting straight to the chase when the woman didn't answer to her first question.

"Such a lovely shade of hair," the woman suddenly exclaimed. Sakura was shocked and was about to growl angrily at her for making fun of her hair but the woman suddenly came near and grasped a strand of it, scrutinising it with blatant curiosity before looking at its roots.

"And it is natural!" She seemed far too delighted, Sakura thought. She looked up for the woman was slightly taller than her and was about to shout but again, she was interrupted,

"And your eyes. My, my. Green and very, very angry but you look prettily so."

By then, Sakura was staring at this strange woman with incredulity that could match Ao's who was staring disapprovingly at the woman, though Sakura couldn't very well see that.

"Could it be that you hold a very special bloodline limit?" She asks Sakura with a strange smile on her red lips, the strand of pink hair still rolling between her slender fingers.

"Why do you ask?" Sakura asked back hostilely, her body tensing significantly. It was her childhood all over again.

But the woman simply smiled, let go of her hair and went to skirt around the wooden floor that was burnt from the lava to whisper something in an elder's ear. That was when Sakura's eyes widened and her eyes shot back and forth from the ground to the woman. Lava? A mixture of fire and earth element? Could she possibly be a –?

"Who are you?" Sakura repeated her question though this time she whispered it with apprehensiveness and mild curiosity.

She was obviously a Kiri-nin judging from the forehead protector she brandished on her bare neck but the village feared a person like her and they would have had her prosecuted. How had she escaped death? Sakura herself had been one of the accused and had to go through a series of probing and intense torture to prove that she wasn't one. And the secret she kept deep inside her mind…well, it certainly wasn't one! _But just who is this woman,_ Sakura thought exasperatedly as the wood was eaten away and the lava begun to settle into the earthy ground.

"I won't tell you my name yet. You might just compromise it," she winked at her.

Chojuro turned a heavy shade of red from her comment and Sakura resisted the urge to glare at him. She couldn't have managed to anyway. Her mind was reeling with a thousand question per second and no one was answering to her properly. She would've forced some by causing a racket but Sakura recognized one of the elders – the one the woman had whispered to – sitting calmly by his tensed companions, all equally ancient. They looked so prehistoric that Sakura feared that even a single tremor of earth could shatter their fragile bones.

"Sakura-chan, it has been quite a long time since we've met," the old man she recognized as Chōrō-sama said almost pleasantly.

He was a very elderly man with a bald head. He wears a brown kimono with a yellow scarf draped over his shoulders. A staff that was crafted to resemble a demon-like creature with red eyes and a mouth with sharp teeth was propped right next to his seat. Sakura couldn't quite remember when they had met but she does remember that he had played a significant role in proving her innocence; proving that she didn't possess a bloodline limit hence saving her life.

"Chōrō-sama," she reluctantly greeted.

"Ah, I see that you still remember me," he said calmly and squinted before praising, "And I see that you've grown well too."

Sakura stiffly nodded in response.

"I must admit that I am surprised to find you here. I think we all are," he said glancing towards everyone in the room. "No doubt what you have learnt tonight is shocking news for you," he continued saying as Sakura frowned.

"What is the meaning of all this?"

"What do you think, Sakura-chan?" He asked gently as if he was addressing a confused child.

"You plan to commit treason, with the aid of Konoha no less. And the Akatsuki…" she trailed off, searching his face for explanation. "I heard you talking about someone. He's controlling Yagura, isn't he? And he's somehow connected to the Akatsuki, no doubt. Is that why you're so desperate to run off to seek aid from the Leaf village? Because Akatsuki is orchestrating a war using Yagura?"

"Perhaps," he frowned slightly when she began to look angry over something.

"I wonder, what do you intend to do with this knowledge you now possess?" Chōrō asked.

Sakura wanted so much to jump at the old man, grab his collar and scream into his wrinkly old face about how utterly confused and frustrated she was about the whole situation! Nobody was answering to her properly and she felt like exploding! What would she know what to do? She was still in shock and her mind was trying hard to replay the conversation she heard so that she could pick up information she'd missed, just so that the whole thing would be more understandable.

"What I have learnt tonight is insufficient," Sakura responded instead, "I doubt that I could proceed without further information."

"I see. You wish to know more," he surmised looking at her with eyes covered by droopy eyelids. The word "obviously" was almost rolling on her tongue but she held it in. She didn't want to be disrespectful, no matter how upset she was feeling at the moment.

There was silence for a long minute and Sakura impatiently waited. She was so tired but at the same time, adrenaline was pumping through her. Fear, confusion or excitement, she didn't know the cause.

"Unless you promise me not to divulge any of this matter to any compromising party then I suppose you can learn more," he suddenly said.

His words were followed by an uproar from the elders and men inside the room.

"She is a spy!"

"Think, Chōrō! She is ANBU loyal to Yagura!"

"We have to silence her permanently!"

Sakura saw that the woman was smiling rather deviously while the hands around her arms tightened even more. Her instinct was urging her to flee but she remained put. What the old man offered was beyond tempting. Sakura never knew that there were something dark and sinister going on behind the scenes as it already was on the surface and she wasn't about to let the chance of learning the truth go to waste. She had been a blind follower for far too long. The woman suddenly raised her hand and the whole room slowed into silence although some of the elders did threw her a couple of glares. Sakura's face twisted into confusion. Just how much power does this woman hold?

"Kunoichi Sakura, you must know that curiosity kills the cat. And I'm afraid your curiosity will end you tonight," she said silkily. That was it. She disapproves. Sakura prepared to gather chakra into her legs so that she can smash the ground and make a mad dash for the village but then she continued,

"Unless…" the woman smirked and stared at her with a gleam in her eyes. She was lost in her thought and some of the elders took that opportunity to whisper angrily towards each other. Sakura noticed that the entrance was blocked by the guards and that everyone's hand was inched towards their weapon pouches and swords. There was no way she could escape. She was low on chakra and Ao plus Chojuro would be on her before she could even squeak. She cursed for exerting too much chakra on her training today. If she'd known that this would happen she would've manned herself with weapons and gears and come fully loaded with chakra.

"I think we will be able to permit you to leave unscathed," she started, eyes gleaming wildly, "but only if you give us something in return."

"And what's that?"

"Your cooperation."

Again, an uproar ensued. Everyone was shouting over each other trying to give reasons why it was a stupid idea and how she could easily betray them. A man was choking over his words about the possible torture Yagura would award him if Sakura reported everything to the Mizukage while most of them just wanted her dead already. One had even drew out his sword and edging towards her but the Ao was probably glaring reproachfully at him because he was hesitating.

"Enough, everyone!" The woman shouted and the room was reduced into silence once more. She then turned an expectant eye towards Sakura.

"What makes you think I'll oblige to that easily?" Sakura challenged.

Her eyes shifted to Chōrō when he slowly grabbed his staff and stood up with slight tremor due to his ancient age.

"It's time for a change, Sakura-chan. It is an obscene place that we live in. It is overly obscene that we let this country run by blood and terror. It is obscene that we let our children play with sharp toys and teach them to kill their friends with that very same toy the next day. And it is obscene that we let a pitiless and ruthless leader run this village, and even country, for so long. We do not deserve this," Chōrō started to explain to her sadly.

"And Konoha's involvement? You trust them so easily?" Sakura snapped angrily which prompted Ao's grip to squeeze her arms like tight metal clamps and Chojuro's blade was once again resting on her throat.

"They will aid us. This country has far too many enemies and Konoha is willing."

"They will betray."

"They will not. Tsunade has sworn."

Green eyes widened like saucers. She could not believe what she was hearing. This group had gone far and beyond. Sakura stared unbelievingly. Surely things like this can easily be overlooked and broken, like the armistice. Konoha can turn their backs and go back on their words but from the grave look in Chōrō's eyes, and from the severe glare of every elders in the room for that matter, she knew that this promise would stay.

"Treason is punishable by death," Sakura reminded him but she did so more out of fear than loyalty to the Mizukage. If he caught wind of this…

The woman laughed, "It's not treason unless we're caught."

Sakura wanted to shake her head disbelievingly but she refrained remembering the giant blade. She heard the woman command Chojuro to lower his sword and she began to step towards her again.

"Why me?" Sakura suddenly asked.

"Exactly. Why her?" An elder demanded. They didn't like the idea any more than she does.

"I believe it is right. We are striving for a change and here is the opportunity. Remember how years ago we would've immediately killed the girl? Now look at us, we are giving chances. She deserves to decide for herself. She had had her life decided for her all this time. Let her make the decision for herself."

Sakura snapped her eyes towards the gentle old man. Something coursed through her and she felt uncomfortable. Make decisions… by and for herself? It wasn't like what a parent would say to a teenage kid but it wasn't like what a master would say to a slave either, the promise of freedom. It sounded weird, she knew, but it evoked something inside her.

"Ao, release her," someone commanded but Sakura was too shocked to register whose voice it belonged to. She didn't even feel the blood that was flowing gratefully down her arms to her fingertips.

"Sakura-chan, I cannot help fearing that men may reach a point where they look on every new theory as a danger, every innovation as a toilsome trouble, every social advance as a first step toward revolution, and that they may absolutely refuse to move at all. Because by then, all hope will be lost," he finally disclosed.

"Please, show me that there is hope."

The room was silent and everyone was looking at them carefully, especially at the pink-haired ANBU who was only standing still and quiet. Nobody wanted to break the silence but still they anticipated a reaction.

"So what do you say, Sakura-chan?"

She broke from whatever depth she had plunged herself into and focused her gaze on the elder.

Slowly, she nodded.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

_An extremely busy month is ahead of me. All of my papers (5!) is due early in that month and I haven't even completed the drafts. The teachers are already chasing me around the school so yeah. I'm not sure if you'll hear from me next week._

_About this chapter, it's freaking long. 7000+ words. Like whutttt. _

_I'm sure you can guess who the Konoha agent is and who that woman is. I hinted the Konoha agent in previous chapter and it's pretty obvious who the woman is if you're familiar with the lava attack and description._

_Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Feed me with some reviews. Getting sick and tired of nutella (nope). _


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